Last Cab to Darwin

Scriptwriter Reg Cribb and director Jeremy Simms have taken the true-life story of Max Bell and put a lens on attitudes about the right to die and aspects of Australian society most of us rarely see.

The film, based on Reg Cribb's 2003 stage play, commences in Broken Hill. Rex, a cabbie played by Michael Caton, has a long-standing relationship with Polly his Aboriginal neighbour. Both have somewhat abrasive personalities, but they complement each other perfectly.

When Rex is diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, he learns that the Northern Territory has legalised euthanasia. He decides to leave and drive his cab to Darwin to have an assisted death rather than face a lingering one in hospital.

Rex's trip to Darwin is not unlike the journey of the three protagonists in "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", its across roughly the same area and ends up in the same place, but like that earlier film, it's also a journey of discovery. Along the way, Rex becomes involved with a number of people and they change each other's lives.

Although the film alters Max Bell's experience considerably, "Last Cab to Darwin" allows for another journey; the one through the divide in Australian society that started in 1788 when the original inhabitants and the European settlers were thrown together.

The film seems to reinforce certain stereotypes about Indigenous Australians, especially in the role of Tilly (Mark Coles Smith), however in other ways it shows them as more sharing and less obsessed with material possessions. Tilly's character emerges as a complex one, although brash and cocky on the surface, his underlying fears and self doubts are revealed.

The setting for the film is during that brief period in the mid 1990's when euthanasia was legalised in the Northern Territory, but was quickly shut down by federal law. The film doesn't necessarily advocate euthanasia though; both sides of the argument are played out.

Finally, the performances are so real that some scenes are hard to watch. Michael Caton gave us a modern Australian icon with his Darryl Kerrigan in "The Castle", but he surpasses himself here.

The last scene in "Last Cab to Darwin" is a lump in the throat moment. Maybe the film won't have much of a following outside Australia, but its central theme of the right to die with dignity is universal.

Michael Caton has been a fixture on Australian screens since the 1970's thanks to TV shows like 'The Sullivans' and 'Packed to the Rafters'. His voice is quintessentially Aussie and his face and personality have made him a household name. His casting for this film is perfect and I can't even imagine another actor as Rex; so perfect is Caton, and such a gift for an actor who has mostly been the family uncle or grandad. Here he is, front and centre; stoic, three dimensional and instantly likable. Director Jeremy Sims, himself a TV and film actor, has elicited an award worthy performance from the veteran, but also helps young actor Mark Coles Smith as Tilly, make one of the year's best supporting turns. The camera just loves his wicked grin and his playful, easy charm. The film pulls no punches with some of the content surrounding both the indigenous characters such as Tilly, or the circumstances and realities of euthanasia. I was disappointed with Jacki Weaver here: she never looks or sounds comfortable with her character, and that is unfortunate as it is a linchpin to the film's trajectory, but Caton's 'Rex' is so unforgettable, that he carries even the weaker elements of the movie. Beautifully photographed and capturing the visceral parts of the landscape and the terrain, 'Last Cab To Darwin' is not a perfect film, but an enjoyable and significant one, and a rewarding one for its leading actor.

I thought this one of the best movies I have seen in a long, long time and up there with the Castle and the Dish. I thought the acting throughout good and especially Michael Caton and the actor who played Tilley who I found to be a lovable rogue. The story line was sad, but was very thought provoking when thinking about and discussion euthanasia. All in all I really enjoyed the story and especially loved seeing the outback of Australia. I cried a lot but I also laughed a lot and would recommend this movie to any age (except children of course) and hope that many people go to see it. I also hope that it is up there when the movie award come out.

One of the great Australian success stories of a very profitable 2015 for local films, Jeremy Sims Last Cab to Darwin scored over 7 million dollars in local box office receipts this year and garnered an equal share of critical and audience good will that will likely see it become a staple in collections of local film lovers for years to come.

Adapting Reg Cribb's successful stage play of the same name and casting Australian identity Michael Caton in the role that he portrayed in that very play, Sims has done a fine job at transplanting a play into a feature length film and his capturing of the dusty plains of outback Australia as Caton's dying cab driver and lonely soul Rex heads off on a road trip from South Australia's Broken Hill to Darwin is one of the films highlights.

But it's not all smooth sailing for Sim's as he finds trouble maintaining momentum in the film which starts off particularly strong and engaging but through a misguided and cliché ridden final act loses stem, particularly with a bunch of side characters that feel slightly underdeveloped and also far to "movie like" to feel real.

Caton delivers what could well be his finest ever moment as Rex a man we come to care for in a short period of time and Caton's experience with both comedy and drama serve him well as he balances a nice line between humour and pathos. Rex's journey (which is supposedly based around some true events) feels real and emotion filled but with the film itself set up for a 2 hour long trip, Rex's ride to be euthanized before cancer slowly kills him gets filled with Mark Coles Smith's (who sadly overplays) lost young man Tilly and Emma Hamilton's English ex-pat Julie's loving nurse and both these characters while at moments help the film along also take a little too much away from the film and it would've been nice to have seen them play smaller roles and Sims to have had more faith in Caton to carry the film along as he was seemingly more than up to the task.

One of the better feel good (and sad) Australian movies in some time, The Last Cab to Darwin would be an incredibly hard films to dislike and while it never breaks out into being an undeniably standout classic, its deserving of its warm reception and likely long standing place in the hearts of Australian movie goers that found themselves investing in this likable tale of one man's journey to find himself in world that seemingly passed him by.

3 ½ cat trees out of 5

A widely recognised characteristic of Australian film is our capacity to find humour in almost any subject. When people from other places try to describe our national character, they use words like larrikin, irreverent, or iconoclastic, meaning we like to laugh at ourselves and the sacred cows in our patch. So how do you laugh at dying, let alone make an Aussie comedy out of a road film that has euthanasia as its destination?

Aussie icons Michael Caton and Jackie Weaver provide the larrikin mix of gravitas and humour needed to make a deadly serious issue bearable as we share the journey and the end-of-life issues facing the terminally ill cab driver Rex. He has never been outside Broken Hill and must drive 3,000 kms to Darwin to be the first person who is legally assisted to die by Weaver who plays a feminine version of Dr Death (as euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke was called). Like in all road films, he crosses iconic landscapes and encounters bad things. He also meets some beautiful characters like the Pommie backpacker Julie who becomes his nurse, a mischievous Aboriginal Peter Pan-type called Tilly, and Polly, the Aboriginal neighbour and secret lover he left behind but calls regularly. The back story of our nation's inept relationship with the traditional owners of our land frames much of Rex's journey, just as it continues to frame our evolving national identity.

While it is an entertaining Aussie yarn, that's not its only purpose. Superb acting by Caton in particular brings you up close and very personal to the emotional and practical challenges of picking a time and place to die with dignity. The film can get heavy-handed in the way it loads political and moral messages into the story; for example, when Tilly yells at Rex "You think its brave to let someone else do your dying for you?" we are confronted with different ways of looking at assisted dying. Rex makes it to Darwin only to find medical and legal confusion, so things do not turn out as expected. For some, it's a distracting edit to have Rex back home in minutes when it took half the film to get there, but perhaps this reflects the truncation of time when the time has come. Be warned: this is a film that can mess with your head about the complex issue of assisted dying, but it's an Aussie gem well worth the effort.