 |  |
Review #488 of 365
Movie Review of Introducing the Dwights (2007) [R] 105 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12.25
Where Viewed: Landmark Esquire Theatre, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 24 July 2007
Time: 6:50 pm
DVD Release Date: 12 February 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Soundtrack: Download now from 
- or - order the CD below
Directed by: Cherie Nowlan (Small Claims: White Wedding)
Screenplay by: Keith Thompson (Battle of Long Tan)
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Brenda Blethyn (Pride and Prejudice) • Rebecca Gibney ("Tripping Over") • Khan Chittenden (West) • Richard Wilson (The Proposition) • Russell Dykstra (Ned Kelly) • Emma Booth (The Shark Net ) • Katie Wall ("All Saints") • Philip Quast (Caterpillar Wish ) • Frankie J. Holden (Lost and Found)
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
"…funny, heart-wrenching, and smart with dashes of illuminating insight into the life far too many of have experienced in some way or another when parents make the choice to separate."
The film is funny, heart-wrenching, and smart with dashes of illuminating insight into the life, when distilled down to essential elements, far too many of have experienced in some way or another when our parents make the choice to separate. Brenda Blethyn absolutely conquers her complex role. Her physicality and emotional investments in Jean create a dazzling performance with all the right moves. Khan Chittenden, also, does a remarkably insightful job in endowing Tim with a raw irresistibility and tender charm. He is devoted to his mother, but, hey, he wants and needs to grow up too. The dynamics of their relationship stands as the pivotal purpose of the film. Jean's got to learn to let go, and Tim's got to make it ok in her mind for her to do so. Achieving this, under the circumstances, may seem an insurmountable challenge for the lad. Meanwhile, Richard Wilson, who endures no mental challenges in real life, took to Mark like a fish to water emboldening a truly beautiful and warm character with humility, humor, and grace. Mark emerges a wonderfully funny and creative soul who exemplifies the charismatic and loving nature of persons who endure these devastating mental challenges and yet, somehow, manage to retain and display most of the best qualities of the human spirit with selfless abandon. Emma Booth, anchors the love rectangle as she tries to understand this new family she's gotten herself into hoping to prove to Jean that she's not really stealing Tim away while also endearing herself to Mark who thinks she's fantastic. Heads will have to roll first, though, and this creates the dramatic tension and reveals the truly anxious and bitter sides of Jean who eventually drinks too much unleashing a truly ugly inner character. But, Tim, angel that he is, will work to get things right by the climax of the film, when all parties gather at the house to try and convince a stark-raving mad Jean not to abandon her life to return to England.
This being the fifth or sixth Australian film I've seen in the past year and a half, I admit that I'm starting to see the unique nature of the style. Films from down under, like their English and French counterparts, are distinctly different in pace, tone, and timbre than their USA equivalents. The first trait they share has to do with a nearly universal tendency to focus on the immediate path of the story rather than on where the story is heading. This gives the films a sense that time stands still and months are passing by in a few minutes of screen time. Moreover, there is a greater sense of realism to the places the people live. Too often, homes featured in USA-made films look they are the result of 10 set-dressers all working at once to make the perfect room. In Australian films, one gets the sense that if you picked a random home on any street in Sydney or Melbourne, you'd find that any home looks exactly like they do in the film. Indeed, this sort of realism spills over into the costuming, the locations, and eventually the characters themselves. It gives the Australian films a more down-to-earth feel to them that places the audience more into the role of voyeur watching the real lives of people unfold. It's easy, in other words, to get absorbed and fall into them more so than with most USA or English films. What they share in common with the French films is that the French are not bothered by unclosed door-endings. Things can be left hanging or undone. The Australian films I've seen all ended with a bit of a lack of real closure. Introducing the Dwights, however, does have a spectacular ending. Only an iron chef could watch without shedding a tear. Still, it leaves many questions unanswered. Sharing most of the now-seemingly traditional Australian film traits, the film is absorbing, yet when it's over, it will leave, as so many of the Australian films do, one wondering, why was this story made into a movie? What did I just sit through? What was so compelling about any of this? Answers will be hard to come by but may lie in the rhythm the films achieve and the seductive draw they pull by offering what seem to be more like the lives, actually, of real people.
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects Featuring Introducing the Dwights (2007)
Cast Members
Brenda Blethyn
• Rebecca Gibney • Khan ChittendenRichard Wilson
• Russell Dykstra • Emma BoothKatie Wall
• Philip Quast • Frankie J. HoldenDirector
Cherie Nowlan
Writer
Keith Thompson
| CD Soundtrack | DVD | VHS |
No comments:
Post a Comment