What a delight to see WISH YOU WERE HERE and to find it very
entertaining, suspenseful and accomplished on every level. Congratulations in
particular to Kieran Darcy-Smith for his first class screenplay and sure
direction and to Joel Edgerton and Felicity Price for their terrific
performances. WISH YOU WERE HERE is a film that all involved (including Screen
NSW and Screen Australia) should be proud of. A few more films like this and
our industry will be in good shape again. If the screenplay was enormously
helped by its having been involved in the Aurora initiative I must revisit and
review my somewhat jaundiced view of the efficacy of Aurora. WISH YOU WERE HERE
is a good film by international standards and deserves to reach a large
Australian audience. I hope that it survives in the cinemas long enough for
word of mouth to spread. Again, congratulations to all involved.
Bee Miles: "It takes a man or a woman of great moral courage - a man or a woman almost unique - to dare to take the risk of being himself or herself all the time, never posing, acting or affecting. It is a dangerous business being yourself. I know of nothing more certain to provoke the almost always false epithet 'mad' or to deprive that man or woman of his or her liberty."
A very good film indeed and it looks as though there's a few more coming down the line so maybe things are looking up. I too hope that 'Wish You Were Here' lasts long enough for word of mouth to kick in. A great flick
ReplyDeleteCan't agree there. I felt that the climax in the 3rd would have probably been better used as the inciting incident in the 1st. Then maybe I would have been interested in seeing how the characters would have reacted with a real problem and what they did to accept it. All I saw was paper thin people with no real yearning for anything and no real reason to piss and moan. I sat through all the hinting that something happened when they were overseas, only to find out that it was not enough of a pay off because nothing, other than the hotted up car follows him once, ever really happened as a consequence of never having said anything to anyone after witnessing the attack. In any case I felt that it wasn't close to how it would have played out should that have been a real life scenario and I think it would have been more interesting exploring events that would have followed if the climax event was at the start. The obligation to ensure the wellbeing of it's citizens and the pressure it would place to recover a citizen abroad is something, almost the only thing, the Australian government does very well, albeit not by them solely. There is controversial material there and a far more tense dynamic. Not that it would put me off seeing another one, Joel Edgerton is the BOSS and I try and see every Australian film I can. Nine times out of ten I love em. Not this time sadly but it is doing well in that all important, but ancient Box office model.
ReplyDeleteYou are right Anonymous that the characters were paper thin and I would have liked to see them developed with more depth but I also think that the hotted up car was a cheap trick. At the time it happened we did not know what it meant and by the time we did we realized that it was a cheap trick. There is no way Vietnamese Triads (or whatever they were) would pursue the Edgerton character in Sydney as they do. Why? To intimidate him? He has no evidence at all that could lead to the arrest of men in Cambodia who have stabbed someone to death in front of no witnesses. I liked the fact that the real drama was the one taking place between the main characters - even if they were a bit thin. Good to see that the film is doing OK though and the director is obviously talented and hopefully next time will be served by a better screenplay. Not that his screenplay was bad. It just didn't go quite far enough as far as characterization goes.
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