Rams

I might wonder why I would choose to rent this movie. Well, partly because I had Amazon credits to use, but mostly because the available selection was rather pathetic. Plain bad movies. Or movies for which they wanted $20 to rent since you couldn't go see them in a theater.

Not only was Rams a wonderful movie in every respect, it was touching, entertaining, and without the boilerplate plot that we are forced to become accustomed to.

I run a small cheese and yogurt making facility serving the dairy sheep farming community of upstate NY. We pasture our dairy shepherds' dry flocks on our farm. Communities like this are quite interconnected as depicted in the movie Rams.

The diseases bugs and parasites are no joke. In dry dry WA they didn't mention what happens when their feet are perpetually wet outdoors. And even in a good year, there's quite a lot of heartbreak because not all the lambs make it.

You can start to feel beset from all sides: the elements, contagious disease, other people, the government, and you yourself chief among them. You have your whole life invested in a way of life. All of these elements were pretty realistically portrayed in this movie.

Given the topic, I did not expect it to be a laugh riot, but the setting, the writing and the acting brought a gentle and refreshing perspective on what can seem like a slog when you are in the thick of it yourself.

Seen the movie with the whole family 7 - 75, we all loved it, something in there for everyone with that uniquely Australian touch.

Inspired by the sensational Icelandic picture of the same tale (where funnily enough, the sheep were credited as actors), Rams is a 2020 Australian screenplay of writer Jules Duncan, a former TV reporter with Channel 9 and GWN.

Starring Sam Neill, the film depicts the story of the striking illness that spreads through the local sheep flocks in Western Australia, causing chaos among the local farmers. Brothers Les and Colin are made to set aside their differences and help fight back against the governmental authorities, in order to protect their animals.

Most movie's featuring animals as their core narrative possess a heart-warming and comforting tone to accompany the delicate and at-times saddening rhythm that is seen on-screen. There is also a more communal film with productions outside the usual American / English billboards, giving the spectacle a more communal display and allowing you as the audience to immerse yourself in empathy of the characters, offering you to feel a part of the story, and connect with the personalities within.

Amassing over $4.3 million in a Box Office struck by COVID-19 preventing a strong cinematic turnover, Rams is a film with compassion, illustrating a devastating crisis in a wonderful, sincere way, its honest form bodes well with perfect dry humour to compliment its tinged sorrow.

I would usually make an overall summarisation in a few lines of what a surprising movie this was, but no one puts it better than Leigh Paatsch of the Herald Sun who said, "At times, it is as charming a (blackish) comedy as they come. At others, it is a strikingly well-observed drama."

It has a great cast and they really carry this film, but they have a lot of work on their shoulders.

No idea what the book is like but as a movie it has problems with where it wants to go. There's a bush fire story at the edge of it but it doesn't really get hooked in, just some vague mentions. There is great scope for humour , but it's not played on that much, and is almost over in the first 30 minutes. There's two love stories that don't go anywhere And the main plot? Other than the caricature of the government worker, there's so much that could of been better put together

This could have been a real feel good movie or bit more Aussie larkism , but left me and my friend flat .