Road to Nhill
Director: Sue Brooks.
Starring: Tony Barry, Vikki Blanche, Paul Chubb, Lynette Curran, Alwyn
Kurts, Denise Roberts, Lois Ramsey, Terry Norris, Bill Hunter.
There have been a plethora of Australian movies around recently and
that makes this parochial person very happy. Just in the last month
or so, I've managed to see about half a dozen. Perhaps it's just that
I'm in Sydney now but I think recently there's been a resurgence to
the Australian film industry and that can only be good. Variety, as
they say, is the spice of life.
Road to Nhill is the latest of my Australian adventures.
It's the story of life in a country town in Victoria somewhere, a
place where very little happens and then one day, something does. As
they say in the movie, four lady bowlers are returning from a bowling
trip when they overturn the car. The movie then looks at what happens
as a result of this incident: how it impacts on the lives of the town
residents.
Parts of this movie are wonderful. The individual characters are
beautifully presented with none of the nastiness that defines The
Castle. The pace is decidedly slow but that reflects the pace of
life in this town. It also allows the audience
the chance to get to know these people. For a while, it's hard to
work out just who is related to whom but eventually the pieces fit
together. Through it's loving depiction of the residents, Road to
Nhill brings a town to life.
The performances are all spot on: the philandering husband, the doting
husband, the awkward bachelor all sound like stereotypes but are
played so deftly that they come across as real people. It's probably
also helped by the fact that they all look like real people: different
ages, different sizes.
It's also the little touches that make this movie a pleasure to watch:
the different tea rituals, especially trying to get a cup of black
tea, Mary's husband
constantly on the phone, the ambulance drivers and their coffee. It's
definitely not edge-of-your-seat drama but it's interesting and
involving in its own way.
That's not to say that it's an unqualified success. There is one
huge, jarring note that, for me, spoils the whole event. It is
the voice of god! For a vehement discussion on why voice-overs in
general are bad see Mike
D'Angelo's review of Gattaca. Specifically for Road to
Nhill, I have two major problems with the voice of god. First, I
have a strong aversion to Mr. Phillip Adams. Well, not him per se, but
his columns in the newspaper and his occasional television appearances
and his radio programme. Why do people have such brain explosions
when it comes to a "god" voice? Why does it have to be an elderly
male with a deep voice? If you're going to have god speak, why not
have a grandmotherly voice, or even one of the new generation of
"helium voiced" actors like Ms. Joey Laurens? No, we have to have a
white haired, bearded, older man. Second, why was the voice of god
even there? It distracted from an otherwise lovely movie; it added no
information; it was annoying as hell! Road to Nhill starts
out with this voice which immediately upset me. However, the movie
then took over and lulled me in to a false sense of security. Not
only did we have god at the beginning but Mr. Adams came back again to
impart wisdom in the middle and at the end. VOICE OF GOD - lovely
movie - VOICE OF GOD - lovely movie - VOICE OF GOD. It was too much
for me.
If I think over the characters who make up this movie, the wonderful
setting, the way their lives are altered by this accident, I get a
warm glow and I feel satisfied about the state of film-making in
Australia. If I think about the voice of god bits, I get cranky that
someone would do that to such a lovely story. The story telling parts
of Road to Nhill bring the town to life, the voice of god
crushes the inhabitants and takes the life out of the movie.
Rating: CR
© Nikki Lesley 1997