Over the Hill

An Australian road movie directed by George Miller. Unfortunately this is not the one that made Mad Max and won an Oscar for Happy Feet.

This is the other Australian director called George Miller even though it features a Mad Max type car chase scene in the outback.

Over the Hill is a truly banal film. Alma (Olympia Dukakis) is now widowed and flies over from America to Sydney to visit her daughter Elizabeth.

The timing of her visit is unfortunate. A snap election is called and Elizabeth and her politician husband do not want Alma around.

So Alma gets a supercharged hotrod and plans to drive to Melbourne with little money. She meets a couple engaged in petty cons, a group of thugs in the outback who she sees off as she just happens to have a stick of gelignite. Alma keeps bumping into a retired dentist called Dutch (Derek Fowlds) who drives about in his wagon.

While it is on the road and Alma has a journey of self discovery. The film is passable. It becomes mind numbingly awful each time her daughter Elizabeth shows up. Not only is she cruel and obnoxious to her mother, she does not even ask if Alma needs anything.

Apparently Elizabeth's anger towards her mother is because Alma let her husband dominate her life and never stood up for herself. So that is it in a nutshell, be callous and cruel to your mother because she took it from your father.

This is a truly hackneyed movie with a script that looks like it has been chopped and changed. It does not flow and makes little sense as it changes genres too often. At one point Alma spends time taking part in some ritual with Aboriginals which inspires her to go back to her daughter to find out what is affecting Elizabeth. If this was a play it would had closed on the opening night.

The only interesting point was to see Derek Fowlds who was best known for Yes Minister/Prime Minister playing an older romantic lead with a pony tail. It's almost like Mr Derek had Basil Brush on his head and both of them had to hide out in Australia under a witness protection program. Maybe Rod Hull and Emu took a contract out on them.

Derek Fowlds died in January 2020. Just how highly he was regarded was demonstrated in his funeral service, Basil Brush popped up to deliver a eulogy.

This is one of my all-time favourites. I like Olympia Dukakis, Derek Fowlds and Sigrid Thornton, but apart from that, it's a romp, a lesson in how NOT to treat your oldies and there are glorious views of Australian outback thrown in. Never too serious, never too flippant, and with characters I warmed to straight away (as opposed to hating everyone like other reviewers), I kept waiting for something monstrous to happen the first time, but it didn't, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Watched it several times and will undoubtedly watch it again. It's a mildly humorous story of somebody rebelling in a very gentle way.

We need it on DVD though!

Effectively Coppola's 'The Rain People' set Down Under and played for laughs with distinctive Australian scenery and humour and beguiling lead performances by the charmingly mismatched Olympia Dukakis and Derek Fowlds.

Great fun.

I wanted to write about this for several reasons. First and foremost was that IMDb has helped me in the past so it's time to put back in. Second was that it is based in Australia, where I've visited a few times and third, a granny in a supercharged hot rod! If you can get through the first five minutes it's not a bad film. I took an instant dislike to all the characters, including Alma, but as the movie unfolded you start to warm to her. Her Yuppie daughter is also instantly dislikeable, along with her politician husband. Dutch was a surprise to me. The retired dentist's two close encounters with Alma added a little light relief to the story, not surprising since he starred in Britain's "Yes Minister" and I hardly recognised him sporting a pony tail and all. There were a few scenes that didn't seem to fit and would have been happy to have them edited out, particularly the one with the Aboriginie women and her 'revelation', or 'trip' or whatever was going on. Also in the 'finger pointing scene' towards the end of the film the acting deteriorated so badly, I thought maybe they'd changed directors on some such. There are shades of Mad Max (the first episode) thrown in for good measure, as well as a love interest or two. To sum up, in Australia the Aboriginies go on 'walkabout' (now there was a good film) to discover themselves, well Alma does it in her orange '59 Bel-Air. Would I watch it again? I doubt it. Not my genre, but to start the ball rolling on this movie I sacrificed an night without sci-fi and enjoyed it.

-My Mom thoroughly enjoyed this movie, so much so that it is one she wanted for her personal library.

-Similiar to another individual's comment which I read, at first you tend to dislike all the characters, however if you can get through the first 5-10 minutes you will fall in love and respect the lead character.

-Once this happens you cannot but help yourself to continue on with her on her adventure.

-Obscure film, although lead character is famous U.S. actress which is probably the reason we were interested in watching it.

-Because it is a film my Mom enjoyed so much I would definitely watch it with her again. It would be one of those movies in her collection that we would just up and watch every now and then.

-There are a couple of friends that I would recommend this movie to as I know they would find it interesting and enjoyable.

-I have always had a wish to visit Austrailia and in a way my Mom and I did together.