Last Ride

I saw this movie a few nights ago on the 18th of June at the Palace, in Brisbane. There was a question and answer session afterwards with Hugo Weaving and the director.

The movie is quite good, i have not read the book. It starts off slow but a lot is accomplished, considering it's relatively short runtime. Hugo Weaving definitely gets into the role of Kev and Tom Russell definitely has potential.

The movie is realistic and is not at all Hollywoodized. If you like dramas then i suggest you go see it. However there are some disturbing thematic material so be warned.

I myself wish that we got more of a variety of movies made here in Australia. this movie is not too different to other that have already been done but at least hopefully it'll be a success and the government will learn to fund then Australian film industry.

It takes a lot of guts to push for truth to character rather than going for the easy way out, softening the edges. In this film Hugo Weaving's character has been so severely scarred by life that he has become a total sociopath, with no capacity for empathy, let alone love. It would have been easier for Weaving to have softened him a bit, shown signs that really deep down he did love his son. But that would not have been this guy, who is as hard as nails and totally self-concerned. Even when takes his son camping, it is all about himself, recapturing the few happy times in his youth. When his son makes that picture shake, his reaction is vicious. All this makes it a hard film to watch, in the same league as some other Australian films like "The Boys".

Matching Weaving step for step, Tom Russell's portrayal of the wary boy wishing his father would show him some affection but fearing the worst, is brilliant. Never overdone or mawkish, showing extraordinary subtlety and maturity for one so young.

Finally, the ending is suitably enigmatic, leaving us with questions about what really happened, and what might now.

A brilliant film, but if you like feel-good with a happy ending, don't go to this one.

This is a coming of age story of two people on a road trip. A man and a boy are elementally bound and separated through their own actions over the course of their intense journey . Each of their choices resonates as a life lesson. Context is revealed in the sparing use of flashbacks: like inexact memories, past acts are recalled in short swirls, and distancing, grainy, TV blue- hues. The characters' more intentional, real-time acts take place in the redemptive, sensually saturated landscape of the Outback. I found Last Ride to be more compelling than anything I've seen this year, with its lean dialogue, stunning cinematography, and great performances. It was so elegantly assembled, that I'm still aghast -this film is a prizewinner in my book. At the same time, I wonder whether I will need to lobby locally, so I can see it on the screen it deserves. It also recalled the more subtle, character-revealing aspects of Thelma and Louise. I saw Little Fish a few years ago, also featuring Hugo Weaving. That that film imprinted on me in a similar way, because it turned out to be an unexpectedly piquant dish. Last Ride is a feast of a film. Bravo, and thank you.

According to the Screen Australia web site, some 45 Australian features were made in 2008, up from 25 in 2007. This movie is probably one of the better ones along with Sampson, My Year Without Sex, Disgrace, Mary and Max and The Black Balloon. It is an adaptation of a well-received first novel by Denise Young by a first-time feature director Glendyn Ivin, the sort of creative combination so beloved of our film funding bodies – "Here's $3 million, go away and play dears". In this case the result isn't so bad and the film does add something to the novel's story of a petty criminal's last sojourn with his 10 year old son across the Australian countryside, with the forces of law and order in hot pursuit. The novel set the action in outback New South Wales but the film makers removed the setting to the more spectacular wildernesses of northern South Australia for both artistic and financial reasons. The reason for Kev and his son Chook's flight, apparent at the start of the novel, is revealed only by degrees, which does add to the drama.

As others have noted, the father Kev, played with all lugubrious stops out by the lugubrious Hugo Weaving, is not a very likable character. Not only does he have serious anger management issues, he is pretty selfish and stupid – the sort of criminal one finds in prison rather than out of it. Having had a pretty sad upbringing himself he does try to do better as a father, but it is not easy for him, and it is not surprising his son becomes disillusioned. His son, despite all the fatherly incompetence, seems surprisingly normal – perhaps this is the result of an uncannily naturalistic piece of acting by Tom Russell, a child actor who is so good he doesn't seem to be acting. What does come across is that even bad fathers can teach good lessons, and that in the end we have to become our own person.

Greig Fraser's cinema photography featuring the Flinders ranges, Wilpena Pound and Lake Gairdner gives a majestic backdrop to what is a fairly small story – I thought it a bit like "And When Did You last See Your Father" would have been if it had been set in the Swiss Alps. Unlike that film, this one has a less angry tone. Poor old Kev can't really help being so inadequate, and he at least makes an effort for his son.

This was an interesting and watchable piece, but I can't see it doing well. Like a lot of similar realistic movies it deals with people at the margins of society, and frankly, most people aren't interested (escapist is a different story). I just wish the government film bodies would stop throwing money at first-timers to make stuff so alien to most people's experiences and of so limited relevance to whatever main steam Australian culture is. One the other hand, The Black Balloon and My Year Without Sex did deal with topics relevant to us all. Bring back David Williamson, I say.

I'm loving Australian cinema at the moment. It's showing a side of Australia we never see after years of Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin. I loved Kenny and loved Beautiful Kate even more. While I don't think it's quite in the same league as the latter, it's still yet another movie which shows the beauty of Australia's great outdoors.

But despite its visual warmth, the backbone of the movie is its dark story. It reveals itself gradually through-out the plot. You will hate Kev (the father), but there will come a point where you will actually come to accept him. Weaving is, as to be expected, solid and his co-star Tom Russell (Chook, the son) looks set to have a great future in the business.

It's a very good movie that you should check out if you get the chance. 8/10