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TELEVISION GUIDE Wednesday March 28 to Tuesday April 3, 2012 Highlights this week 1. Rhys Wakefield and Gemma Ward are wonderful leads in the powerful, moving and funny Australian film The Black Balloon (ABC2, Saturday, 10.10pm). Wakefield plays Thomas, who moves to a new school, tries to fit in and is aided by his new girlfriend Jackie (Ward). His life is further complicated by his autistic older brother Charlie – an astonishing performance by Luke Ford. To top it off, Toni Collette stars as the harried yet affectionate mother. It’s about love, loss, longing and growing up, and first-time feature writer/director Elissa Down justly deserves the plaudits heaped upon her. ‘I have three younger brothers, two of which have autism,’ Down told Andrew L Urban, ‘so growing up was very eventful, crazy, funny and sometimes very sad. I always thought it would be a powerful story to tell.’ 2. While Drew Barrymore looks a bit saccharine in wings – it’s hard to avoid – she gives an excellent performance as the post-feminist Cinders in Ever After: A Cinderella Story (Eleven, Sunday, 8.30pm), a comedy with realistic bite set in Renaissance-era France. Anjelica Huston gives a rousing turn as the villain.
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