Gettin' Square

David Wenham steals the show as the spaced out junkie "Spit". His performance in the tribunal scene is one of the greatest comedy scenes I've ever seen in a movie. This performance took it from just another caper movie to a really good movie. Freya Stafford was wasted as the juvenile love interest, she can handle meatier roles than this. Gary Sweet as good as ever and the rest of the cast was world class. Don't miss this one!

Getting' Square is one of the zaniest movies I've seen all year. What really makes the movie is actor is David Wenham as Johnny "SPIT" Spitieri who plays a very dumb junkie. Some of you may know him as Faramir in Lord Of The Rings. Nobody could have played his junkie role better. I saw this movie at the Honolulu Film Festival and David Wenham was there.

Getting' Square is about three criminals who are trying to set their lives straight. Spitieri is just out of jail and trying to get himself off drugs. Barry Wirth (Sam Worthington) met Spitieri in jail, and he is released towards the start of the movie, and is also trying to clean himself up.

The Australian accents were a bit hard for me to understand at times, but that didn't much matter because the actors did such a great job. The court room scene that David Wenham did was acting at it's best. Nobody else could have played Johnny Spitieri better.

If you don't like the film, I would venture to say that you have missed the point of trying to capture the Oz psyche. This flick did, and I loved it.

From the choice of Nick Cave singing whilst Barry resigns himself to a corrupt flogging, to Spit's thongs (flip flops for out-of-towners) and acid wash jeans, this film is one of those "essence" films. When done well, capturing the essence of Australia, that is rapidly fading into history (and we can all identify or know many of the characters) just makes you laugh.

The treat is how an good tale has been woven around the lead characters, ususally its the opposite. In particular, I am totally amazed how Mr Wenham, like he did in Cosi (my favourite Oz movie), manifests a character so utterly different from the man himself. He truly is the business when it comes to his craft.

David Wenham as the nobel Faramir, hero of Gondor, is totally unrecognizable as the greasy-haired, twitching, whining drug addict John "Spit" Spitieri of "Gettin' Square". The film is great - it moves fast, never lets you lose interest and gives you a real emotional connection to the main characters - Barry, Dabba and Spit, all trying desperately to go straight but threatened with derailment by the plans of less-respectable acquaintances from their past. The story is great, the directing tight, the performances - especially Wenham's - top notch. His courtroom scene alone is worth the ticket price for the film.

This was a decent Aussie comedy-crime caper. Granted it takes a bit to get going but is worth watch for a young Sam Worthington and a knock out performance from David Wenham as 'Spit' the lovable, mullet spouting drug addict. Friends in prison, both men are paroled around the same time and determined to put the past behind them and stay straight.

Spit struggles with heroin, noisy flip-flops and a lack of pants while 'Barry' gets a job at the Texas Rose, a restaurant owned by another ex-con trying to go straight as a family man and lose some unwanted pounds -played by the excellent Timothy Spall.

All three men are being targeted by a local crime boss, a shifty accountant and a corrupt detective and get pulled into that one last heist. There's a bit of a love story between Worthington and his parole officer, lots of twists, some good laughs (mostly during the courtroom scene) and a fantastic soundtrack. 10/19/16