The Hard Word

'The Hard Word' is an excellent, well-paced Australian movie, straddling the genres of the American noir caper film and the British thick-ear crime drama. Some of the sequences in this movie remind me of scenes in 'The Asphalt Jungle', 'The Killing', 'La Jetee', the Peter Sellers comedy 'Two-Way Stretch' and even 'Eating Raoul' ... but 'The Hard Word' is definitely a one-off original, and it's very good.

The early scenes in this film take place in the Australian prison system. I've done some prison time Down Under (in my original name, before I changed it), and I found these scenes extremely realistic. Seppos and Poms (Yanks and Brits) will have difficulty understanding the Strine slang in this movie; for instance, when an inmate shouts 'Half yer (expletive) luck!', it's not instantly clear to non-Australians that this means 'I wish I was half as lucky as you.' Also, American audiences will be confused by this movie's references to racetrack 'bookies'. In Australia (as in Britain, but unlike in the States), bookies are lawful businessmen ('turf accountants') who privately take bets at sporting events, as independent contractors.

And most confusing of all for audiences outside Australia: some of the dialogue in 'The Hard Word' is spoken in 'butcher talk'. This is never explained in the movie, so I'll reveal that butcher talk (or 'rehctub klat') is the dialect used by (real-life) Australian criminals for covert conversations in public ... in which every word is spoken BACKWARDS, very rapidly. Even if you know the secret, you won't understand a conversation in 'butcher' unless you've practised a lot. (In Britain, criminals have a gimmick called 'backslang' which is a simpler version of the same thing.) Several times in 'The Hard Word', the dialogue is brilliantly ambiguous, carrying two meanings at the same go.

Three felons are released on the same day: violent Dale, easy-going Malcolm and Pepsi-swilling mother-obsessed Shane. (The dialogue identifies them as brothers; they don't look remotely alike, but that line explains why they stick together no matter what.) As soon as they get out, our lads participate in an armoured-car robbery that's been set up by their crooked lawyer Frank ... but Frank might be setting them up for a fall. And while the lads were 'inside', Frank has been having a go with Dale's sexy wife Carol. Rachel Griffiths, who plays Dale's wife, is not conventionally beautiful ... but in this film she gives one of the sexiest performances I've ever seen on screen.

SLIGHT SPOILERS COMING. There are some eye-catching frame compositions in this film; all credit to director/scripter Scott Roberts. But several pieces of business seem to be set up only to create odd images on screen. A rival gangster lures Dale into a trap by disguising himself as Dale's wife and then hiding in their bed with a gun; I found this wildly unlikely. Frank kills another gangster by cramming a lava lamp into his mouth: no blood, no broken teeth; just an interesting visual composition. One long sequence takes place inside a restaurant shaped like a giant cow.

An actor named Robert Taylor (doesn't he know that this name's been used before?) is very good as Frank, the brothers' crooked lawyer. Frank dies a horrible death. How to get rid of the corpse? We know that Malcolm is handy with a sausage-grinder, and in the next scene we see him grilling some FRANK-furters on the barbie. That pun is no coincidence. (Damien Richardson is a revelation as Malcolm.)

On several occasions, the crooks jeopardise their own well-planned caper by brawling or arguing; I found this a very accurate depiction of criminal behaviour. Yet there's one very implausible plot twist during the robbery at the Melbourne Cup, when Shane is supposed to open a locked door by typing a 4-figure number into a numeric keypad ... but a henchman named Tarzan insists on doing it himself, even though he's dyslexic. Doesn't Tarzan realise that his dyslexia disqualifies him from this job? Sure enough, he mucks it up.

During the caper sequences, I kept expecting to see the cliché shot from every caper film ... when a swag-bag rips open, and banknotes go flying in all directions. Blessedly, that hackneyed image never came. For most of its length, 'The Hard Word' commendably avoids clichés. I thought Rhondda Findleton quite sexy as an anger-management counsellor with a semi-Louise Brooks hairbob, but I was annoyed when her character became that prison-movie cliché: the sexy female prison staffer who goes home every night and can get any man she wants on the outside, yet who becomes sexually involved with one of the inmates a few minutes after she meets him! I couldn't believe that this woman would be having sex with Shane ... it would have been much more plausible if she had merely **led him on**, arousing herself with his sexual frustration while offering him no release.

At the very end of this flick, the three brothers and Carol are striding purposefully towards the camera. 'Please', I thought, 'please do NOT commit that horrible cliché of freeze-framing the final shot.' Instead of a freeze-frame, the final image went into a slo-mo ... which is also a cliché, but not quite so hackneyed yet. Despite a few complaints, I'm vastly impressed with this highly entertaining movie. I'll rate 'The Hard Word' 8 points out of 10. Nice one, cobber!

With lots of holiday time on my hands, decided to tape this and watch later. Didn't particularly want to see it, but figured it was worth a chance.

The story is about 3 bank-robbing brothers, caught up in a mess with a bunch of crooked cops. They basically keep spending time between robbing banks and prison. When a huge heist opportunity comes their way, revolving around the Melbourne Cup, they see their chance to get out for good with a nice lump sum of cash money.

The cast is solid, featuring Guy Pearce (Mike from "Neighbours"), Joel Edgerton and Rachel Griffiths, the storyline is OK, but the story just bugged me. The language is pretty rough, there's some odd sexual content and the movie really starts to drag. A lot more effort should have gone into the heist scenes than some of the stuff they dabbled in (eg relationships, mental health, salmonella) with no depth, making it pointless.

Had potential, but went nowhere.

"The Hard Word" is a gritty, sexy, Australian take on the double-crossing heist movie.

We get to hear Guy Pearce (long-haired and greasy) and Rachel Griffiths (blonde and wet) go native in their accents in an entertainingly original script by first-time director Scott Roberts.

While not the first film to have quirky brothers-in-crime as the comfortable loyalty fulcrum, the familial psychological pathologies make for a nice counterpoint to the friends', foes', and femme fatale's twists and turns. There's more jokes and ironic humor than even the violence, which helps to block out some quizzical plot turns.

The movie never tells us that the title is Ozzie slang, among other blunt phrases used throughout (such as the tendency of Ozzie blokes to affectionately call each other the "c" word). My Down Under friend Bronwyn translates (used with her permission): "In it's 'ultimate' usage it means to pressure someone for sex. If you were talking to a girlfriend who went out on a date with someone new, you might ask 'did he put the hard word on?' However, it is sometimes also used just in a general sense of exerting pressure. In fact, it was in a headline in our local suburban paper ("The Leader") yesterday: 'Minister puts the hard word on district pollies [politicians].' An article about the State Minister for Local Government pushing the local councils to sort out boundary reforms."

Tough and profane, THE HARD WORD is a nasty little gem filmed in Australia during the criminal caper comedy run of production themes from 1999-2003. Like DIRTY DEEDS the same year, it was harshly judged and slid at the box office, but on a big screen it was quite enjoyable in its deliberately mean way. With an excellent cast including Guy Pearce and Rachel Griffiths, it also features a hugely silly putty nose stuck on Pearce's face. God knows why. Also in the cast are two of Australia's best character actors... the gorgeous Rhondda Findleton (see her also in LOVE IN LIMBO) and the adorable hilarious Torquil Neilson (from the equally maligned farce LET'S GET SKASE). Both these support actors would be big stars if on TV overseas but they just never get big release parts here in Australia... bit like the superb he man Jack Campbell from THE NOSTRDAMUS KID and charming Nicolas Beaumont. THE GUARDIAN star from TV Simon Baker ( of L.A. Confidential)seems to have taken all the roles for these guys in one career. THE HARD WORD is a wannabee heist caper with some nasty behavior. Sam Genocchio's 2004 micro budget crime calamity GET RICH QUICK also attempted the same Aussie genre with genuinely disgusting and hilarious results. Wait until you see how Rachel Griffiths greets Guy Pearce peering at her from behind the glass prison visiting room window in THE HARD WORD.... I hope she wasn't sitting next to her Mum at the premiere for that scene to unfold. Rachel! what a thing to agree to be photographed doing with that smile on your face! John Waters would have been thrilled.

In my time, I have seen many films that have shown the bad side of people's lives, with The Hard Word being no exception. This film has it all. The tough guys using, aussie language, committing major crimes and misdemeanors and most importantly, they are having a ‘bloody' good time while they are doing it. If I was to be part of thieving gang, then I would ask for a ticket to join in with the close-nit robbers known as the `Twentyman's'.

Meet the Twentyman brothers, Dale, Shane and Mal: hard bitten thieves with a self imposed honour code that demands nobody gets hurt. The three are languishing in a Sydney prison on remand for armed robbery. Dale, the level-headed leader of the Twentyman pack, is helping the trio focus their life beyond crime, while he focuses on his wife Carol. Middle child Mal is affable sort, whose love for butchery helps him while away hours behind bars. Shane, the youngest, is a loveable lunatic with a short fuse. When word comes that their corrupt and well connected lawyer frank has secured them bail, the boys whisked off to perform a ‘job' and all goes well. Frank has greased the appropriate wheels, ensuring the local cops don't cause trouble, yet the brother's find themselves back in the slammer all too quickly. Frank bullies the brother's into one last heist; a grandiose scheme that will either liberate or kill them, once and for all!

I really enjoyed this Australian piece of cinematography. The cast of this film was big, but extremely good. The three ‘Twentyman brothers', were played well by there acting talent. I really feel that Guy Pearce has been a breath of fresh in the movie industry, whether it be in his home country, or overseas. He played the careful and leading Dale. I really liked what Pearce did in this role. He was extremely intense, but in way a seriously dangerous character, though his chosen life would say otherwise. All he wanted was to do the ‘jobs' and be able to live comfortably. Guy has some impressive movies on the CV, including the brilliant L.A. Confidential, Memento and the very feminine `Priscilla, Queen Of the Desert' . The other star of this show is another Australia acting talents, Rachel Griffith. Like Guy Pearce, she lightens up the screen as only she can, and has been refreshing to the movie industry. She played the ‘tart', Carol, wife of our leading crime man. She was perfect for this role. I feel that no other actress could have got it better. Griffiths has had a good time of late and is about to star in the upcoming movie on the famous Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly, and has been in the recent movie hit, Blow, starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruise.

Dale's younger brother Shane, is played by ‘Secret Life of Us' star Joel Edgerton. Shane is a very angry criminal, but is also very cheeky in what he does, to help his jail-ridden brothers, taste freedom once again. His character, is I am sure what young people are like when they dabble in crime. Joel has starred in other movies like Erskinville Kings, Star Wars Episode II and Ned Kelly. The other Twentyman brother was played by actor Damien Richardson. I enjoyed how he acted in this character immensely. He was so typically ‘Australian' in almost everything he did and said. Yet he was also like Dale in that he was in it for the ‘cash', and to not hurt anyone. Look I could on about the cast of this film, with good roles from Robert Taylor, who played the scheming lawyer Frank, comedian Kym Gyngell, Russell Dykstra, Rhondda Findleton and Vince Colosmo.

Yet this film also had a wonderful story and showed off the landscape that it had beautifully. The film's story was written by its director Scott Roberts. I feel he put the right amount of Aussie colloquialisms in it, to make me feel like it is a part of my everyday life. Yet this story, while it might be simple in parts, was an extremely clever in how it was written, with the premise of three brother's being in jail for crimes they have committed, very ingenious. A mention of the language that this film has is important. Swearing is now being accepted more than ever by society, yet in the movies it seems to still shock many people. The Hard word had plenty of ‘Hard words', but were used in a suitable context. What do you expect from harden criminals anyway? However, the work of the cinematographer also needs a mention here. This role was taken on by Brian J. Beheny, who showed off the attractions of both Sydney and Melbourne well in this film. As a former Melbournian resident, the way this film used Melbourne was really rewarding for me personally.

For me, living a life of crime would be a an extremely difficult choice, as I feel the tag ‘crime does not pay', is good motivation not to experiment in unlawful activities. In a way, this movie shows that tag to be true. Yet this film shows the other side to crime well. To see how these bad guys stick together and are so faithful towards each other is exceptional. When you are about to watch this film, you could be mistaken for knowing what to except, but let me assure you, that once you have viewed ‘the Hard Word', the characters' and most of their actions will amaze you, to the point that you would never have imagined or forget. This is another positive step forward for the Australian movie industry.

CMRS gives ‘The Hard Word': 5 (Brilliant film)