Wish You Were Here

...and overhearing their moronic conversation. Plot follows: Three people who should never be allowed to breed try to do adult things and fail. Reminds me of one dreary summer I spent in Byron Bay, finishing a Masters degree and writing a lot in cafes. Overheard so many braindead conversations being had by so many dimwitted half-hippies.

How does tripe like this get funded?

While on holiday in Cambodia, two couples, Dave and Alice Flannery (Joel Edgerton and Felicity Price) and Steph McKinney and Jeremy King (Teresa Palmer and Antony Starr), partake in all the traditional tourist attractions the impoverished country has to offer, but after attending an underground dance party, Jeremy unexpectedly disappears and a dark secret is buried within the circle of friends. What starts out like a third chapter in "The Hangover" franchise quickly morphs into a simple and dismal story of betrayal that drags its feet through the first two acts, only to conclude on an intriguing high note. However, the compelling conclusion only leaves an irritating aftertaste, since the journey certainly isn't worth the pay off. Director Kieran Darcy-Smith neglects his characters' foundations and significance to such a degree that viewers have little to invest in. In turn, everyone's wavering fates are insignificant and disposable. In the same fashion of the story, Edgerton and Price float through the film without devoting too much into their characters, but once the finale comes into play, they immediately switch gears and display their true acting abilities.

This movie only manages to keep viewers vague interest. It also is unconvincing in its plotting and characterisations. Teresa Palmer is given a plain boring role but still manages to give it a good shot, where as Joel Edgerton is pretty week, trying to be mysterious but giving us little reason to care what he's hiding. The movie is well shot and has solid faming and colour but also comes off like a Bali tourism advert at times. The central mystery just isn't that compelling and whatever tension is there throughout the story quickly deflates rather than explodes like it should. It just simply isn't worth an hour and a half of your time.

Wish you were here is the story of four people who take a holiday in Cambodia but one of them goes missing. The film pieces together the mystery of where the missing man has gone.

It's a relatively small film but is well filmed nicely combining drama with the ongoing mystery. It stars the on the up Joel Egerton who is very good in this and he receives excellent support from the rest of the cast who all put in believable performances.

It held my interest throughout as it keeps you guessing as to what has happened to the missing man. The main downside is that it does maybe lose a little steam towards the end and the ending is a little flat.

Wish you were here will not appeal to those who seek action or thrills and is not a brilliant film however for those that like nicely pitched drama's this is well worth watching.

Wish You Were Here is a directorial debut for actor Kieran Darcy-Smith and written by Darcy-Smith and his wife Felicity Price. The premise of the movie is promising: four Australian friends are enjoying a holiday in Cambodia, but one goes missing after a particularly "heavy" night of partying. The movie is superbly shot and mostly well acted, but I was nevertheless disappointed.

We see the holiday firstly as a 10 minute sequence which moved too rapidly for me. As the movie progresses the holiday is shown in beautiful flashbacks, which give us insight into the characters as well as depicting some of the events that took place. When husband and wife, Dave and Alice (Joel Edgerton and Felicity Price) return to Sydney, they leave Alice's sister, Steph (Teresa Palmer), to try to find out what happened to her boyfriend, Jeremy (Antony Starr). Dave is uneasy and troubled, and even more so when Steph arrives home and the first of many secrets is uncovered.

Joel Edgerton is marvellous as a man wracked with guilt and tormented by secrets and lies he dare not reveal. Teresa Palmer is also very good, but unfortunately her part is underwritten. I found that I became a bit bored with Felicity Price's character, Alice, especially when we start to see more and more of her and less of Dave. About half way through, the movie seemed to become stuck, and I was wanting the original storyline to develop and to give answers to the mystery. When truth is finally revealed, it is terrifying, but it feels anti-climactic, because we've had to wait too long.

I found it hard to sweep my expectations aside and see the movie as the writers/director intended it to be: a story about the effect on family life when one spouse hides a dark truth from their partner. I was expecting more of a thriller, and even as I tried to accept the way the plot unfolded, I still found it disappointing. At certain times I felt sympathy for the characters and I felt their pain; but there were scenes where the magnitude of emotions that the characters were experiencing was not adequately conveyed, (for example, the ending). Obviously, Wish You Were Here was not as engrossing for me as it was for others, but I wish it had been.