A Man's Gotta Do

I just saw this movie at the Minneapolis/Saint Paul International Film Festival, and I was blown away. Sure, someone else reviewed it as "light." I think comedy is harder than drama: drama gets attention in the way we like to gawk at car accidents; comedy only works if the filmmakers create believable human characters.

Eddy (John Howard), the father, is a bloke's bloke. He's not good at understanding his daughter, and doesn't know why it matters so much anyway. However, he loves his daughter, so he works at it. The daughter Chantelle (Alyssa McClelland) did a wonderful job as a sensitive young woman. The mother and minor characters also have real personalities and quirks.

I also had the privilege of meeting the director, who attended the screening. He is also a dentist part-time (!), and described making a film in Australia. He gets government grants, but they are very competitive. You have to have international distribution and 30% of the budget already lined up (!). He spends years on each film, and knows none of them are going to make much money unless he gets very lucky, because they don't have wide distribution or much marketing. Australians don't seem to love Australian movies (you're never a star in your home town), so not much positive feedback there. I was impressed with his fortitude. Possibly he just likes making movies.

The characters here are beautifully drawn, interesting, and, yes, funny. The director is the kind of guy I wish would succeed in this cold world. See this movie!

As an expat Australian living in Las Vegas, I managed to record this movie from the IFC channel on cable this week.

I am saddened to search the web and find that this movie received poor reviews and has no comments in the forums.

Overall, I found the movie to be a wonderful representation of the Australian character. Perhaps its because I have a daughter who is 17 and speaks (and acts) just like Chantelle.

Unfortunately, much of the humor in the movie will be lost in translation. Subtle phrases and gestures that are so Australian will not be noticed by international audiences.

Overall, the movie was a solid B in my opinion. The plot was fairly linear but the acting was top notch. Even made me a little homesick :-)

The movie is about a fish monger / stand-over man, Eddy (John Howard). He has to get passed several problems with himself and his family life within the movie, including - his daughters wedding, his vasectomy and his car being smashed. A question that i asked myself, throughout the movie was "Is Eddy good or bad?" People could debate over this topics until the cows come home. But i believe that Eddy is a good man at heart, even though some of the things he does and the ways he does them, are not so good. But his intentions are good and his heart is in the right place. The movie is exactly what i expected to get from a good Aussie comedy, that is Aussie slang, typical stereotypes and non stop humor.

Enjoyed this one very much, witty and well-executed screenplay with terrific performances and a gentle undercurrent of humor throughout. John Howard was amazing as Eddy, the dad, and Alyssa Mclelland was pitch perfect as his gorgeous daughter with the voice of an angel. I am not sure why some find this movie to be less than wonderful, but I enjoyed it immensely from the first moment I laid eyes on it. It is satirical, yet evokes genuine emotion; it is very laid back, yet kept me on the edge of my seat as the plot twisted up in a knot and then unraveled (almost) before kinking up again. The fortune teller was a key plot device and the script ran a fine line between nearly serious and tongue-in-cheek in those scenes. Are all housewives in Oz as suggestible as Rebecca Frith's Yvonne? No matter, she was lovely and seductive. Gyton Grantley as Dominic wins you over from the first, too. I'd enjoy seeing all of these actors again.

I thought this movie was excellent. John Howard was awesome in his role, he had the Aussie bloke role down pat, I was in stitches!

The daughter had the quirky thing going' well, I didn't really like the mother in the movie, her acting was good, just an annoying character.

I'm trying to find out if a soundtrack was released for this movie, Some of the songs the daughter was singing in the movie were really touching, geez I'm soppy!

Seriously though, don't know why people have given this such a low rating, the plot was funny - not mind boggling - there were loads of laughs, would watch it many times over.

Another Aussie must see film