A Sting in the Tale

I have to agree with the other review here (from 10 years ago).

This is quite a passable political comedy-drama, but unfortunately looks more like a television show of the era, done on a limited budget, with limited amounts available for costumes, sets, outdoor scenes etc.

That said, the story of an honest young woman who outwits all the scheming, sexist, patronising men around her, is reasonably well told and makes sense.

Diane Craig is convincing as Diane Lane who runs rings around all the male bastards she encounters. The men around her are mostly self-serving, ambitious and dishonest, from her cheating boyfriend (Gary Day), to the media baron (called Roger Monroe but obviously meant to represent Rupert Murdoch) (Ted Hodgeman), to the almost comically incompetent Prime Minister (Don Barker).

It's entertaining enough, and quite interesting from a historical point of view to consider the issues that were important back in the 1980s.

This apparently was distributed theatrically, but I think it must have been on a very small scale. It looks to me more like a second-rate telemovie of its undistinguished period. In terms of its story, however, it was before its time. It has not only the first female Australian prime minister, but also an international media baron in difficulties. It might have been timely to show it again, but unfortunately it's not worth watching. Only one element in this very ordinary film made an impression on me: the performance of Edwin Hodgeman as the media baron. I had just seen him in Codgers, in which I didn't like his performance at all, but here he is better directed and shot, and his acting makes such a strong contribution it almost saves the film.