A Heartbeat Away

A young indie rocker is forced to become the leader of his father's marching band just weeks before their major competition. With some help from the leotard-wearing Isabel Lucas, he must rearrange an iconic rock song and make sure the geriatric band members aren't brassed off. This falls largely into that lazy category that Australian films do so often. A simple plot line, set in a sleepy town with a bunch of clichéd Aussie characters that are meant to carry the film with their charm. This may work with classics such as Strictly Ballroom or the Castle, but in this film, the characters have no charisma, no spark, they get by purely on their musical talents. Isabel Lucas looks asleep during her performance, more so than usual and the lead role played by Sebastian Gregory provides a luckless character who an audience would fail to believe is capable of catching a fish, let alone a girl. The destructive weather that frames the story is a visual delight, however given the timing, I'm not sure that Australia is ready to see another quaint Queensland town swept away by storms.

I didn't have much hope from it when I started so I started watching it on my phone. The plot line is quite simple and revolves around a small town marching band and the regional competition of brass bands. It's not a suspense story and you can practically guess how it will go but the small twists on the way keep you entertained and the film moves fast.

The characters are real life rather than larger than life. For a simple story it's important to keep the pace fast and this it does very well.

Everything builds up to the final scenes in the regional competition and by then it had built up enough that I stopped watching it on the phone and kept it for the big TV. It was worth it! The climax has twists and turns of its own and it well worth watching carefully.

The whole film is predicated mostly on the music both guitar and brass band but the final scenes, predictably, much more so. The music is very good, even the brass band music is very moving and inspiring.

Along with the music the cinematography is also very good, especially in the final scenes where it shines.

I would recommend this film.

This movie is definitely a must see! I just don't get it. A horrible Australian movie fully inspired by stupidity and brainlessness (sex, sex, sex, swearing, swearing, swearing) like the Make-Over wins a price in New York, whereas an honest family movie like "A heartbeat away" hardly gets any attention. Today we saw this movie and I think there were only 5 people in the cinema. Initially there were 7, but two teenage girls (approx. 15) walked out after approximately 20-30 minutes. I guess they were expecting more swearing, violence, killing, and sex on the big screen. I believe the world should make more movies like "A heartbeat away" and should turn back at a time where movies still had some honest drama and comedy to show, rather than endless and pointless killing of each other and blowing up as many buildings as possible. Teenagers want Dexter nowadays! Sure, as if making a hero out of someone who cuts up people in small pieces for fun is conveying an ethical message. Just wait 10-20 more years and watch a steady increase in more Columbine massacres occurring in front of your own eyes. I recommend taking your teenagers to "A heartbeat away" and show them a movie that is still fun to watch, has an interesting local story, good cinematography and shows teenagers how teenagers should be - rebellious within ethical boundaries. I scored "A heartbeat away" an 8/10! Why, because the producer didn't go for more violent crap and didn't get himself lured into a world of complete cinematographic BULLSH!T. We liked this movie and my almost 15 year old daughter also liked it - good on her! Go Australia - make more of these movies and show the rest of the world we do our own stuff and don't have to be brainless followers! And "yeah" RedDogMovie also looks very, very promising! Finally some real honest Aussie movies (much better than that crappy movie "Australia").