LynChamas

Although this film has been dismissed by some as not the best of Billy Wilder I think it's grossly under-rated. Wendell Armbruster(Jack Lemon) attempts to recover the body of his deceased father and becomes entangled with Pamela Piggot(Juliet Mills) and her attempts to recover the body of her dead mother, killed with Lemon's father after they'd enjoyed a secret ten year romance together. If it wasn't for the efforts of hotel manager Carlo Carlucci, played wonderfully by Clive Revill, they'd have got nowhere. Interwoven with this main theme are Miss Piggot's battle with her weight and the aspirations of Bruno the butler to return to the USA, from whence he had been deported for working with the mafia (but only part-time). The predictable romantic development is charming and not at all the usual formula.

The screenplay sparkles like a great Italian wine,sharp, witty, effervescent. At 2 1/2 hours it's not a minute too long, the time flies by in a shower of laughs. Lennon is excellent as always, Mills likewise, but the jewel in the crown is Clive Revill's Carlo Carlucci. Every hotel should have one.

If you want to spend a really enjoyable couple of hours, take yourself to Italy via this movie. It'll only make you want to go back again and again.

It's a great pity that Australians don't get behind their own movies, and that Aussie films don't get much of an international showing, because this film is one of our better offerings and as such deserved more of a chance than it got. The action is fast-paced, right from the start, and the movie never drags. Director Grigor Jordan knows his legend and is sympathetic to his subject; the camera work is good and the score hauntingly beautiful. Actor Heath Ledger brings Kelly to life and makes a strong emotional connection to the viewer, there are excellent performances from Laurence Kinlan as Dan Kelly, Philip Barantini as Steve Hart and Joel Edgerton as Aaron Sherritt, and Orlando Bloom's Joe Byrne gives us some of his best acting to date. It's easy to shine in a multi-million dollar epic, wearing exotic costumes and working on fabulous sets, but when the costume is a coat that buttons too-tight across the chest and the set is a patch of mud in the bush, all you have is good acting to get you by, and Bloom shines. Highly recommended.

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.