Looking for Grace

Sue Brooks films are always refreshing, stylish, and unmistakably Australian. Looking for Grace does justice to Brooks fine understanding of the complexities of the human condition and the struggles and subsequent lessons encountered within family life. This is a bold and insightful film, paced in Brooks unique style. I found this film immensely satisfying despite the fact that the interweaving of the characters personal stories confused me a little at times this technique did not detract from the films overall intrigue. The all Australian cast was well chosen and the cinematography captured the desolate emptiness of the desert landscape and added strength to the metaphor of distance within this small family's relationships. This is a great film!

One of the classic tropes of Australian film is the random and ever-present potential for destruction that is represented cinematically by the vastness and untamed beauty of our unique landscapes. It is sometimes shown, for example, as mystical power (eg: Picnic at Hanging Rock), dystopian violence (The Rover), terror (Wolf Creek), images of deadly bushfires or road-kill scattered over lonely country roads. Looking for Grace builds on this tradition and explores random destruction in a novel way by taking a simple plot line and splitting into separate narratives that converge with deadly force.

Five stories unfold in parallel as sign-posted chapters, each telling the same story but from a different viewpoint. The narrative arc turns on rebellious 16 year-old Grace who empties her father's safe and hops on a coach for a heavy metal concert a few days from home. While chance plays a part, meeting a boy, losing her virginity, and being robbed is a predictable tale for many run-aways. What is not predictable is how the four other stories overlap hers. The unfaithful father seems more concerned about the cash than his daughter and the over-controlling mother is pathetically funny keeping up appearances in the midst of a missing person investigation. The doddery old private detective hired to find Grace (and the money) worries about the whiteness of his false teeth and says the most obvious things in funny ways. And there is the seemingly disconnected story about the road-train driver who bookends the film and ties five random tales into a single Aussie yarn.

The cinematography is superb and it carries the film. From lovingly long panoramic landscapes, to backlit gum trees, golden sunrises, the sharp detail of a furtive glance in shallow depth of field, the camera-work is beautifully crafted and quintessentially Australian. Acting is excellent although based more on good casting than fine performance – there is little room for character development in a film cut five ways. It is also deliberately slow in parts; rather than looking like parents in crisis we see dad's clumsy preoccupation with his own guilt, mum's growing anxiety about her marriage and looking good in gym wear, and Grace just takes her time like any teenager. Minor reservations aside, this is an engaging tale told in the finest Aussie tradition.

As I sat there at the Melbourne premier of Looking for Grace, I sat in confusion for the first 25 minutes as I struggled to see what kind of movie was being played out. The film did gradually slow into a good pace, but the first 25-35 minutes were unbearable. The camera-work and visual aspects of the film were all very well done, mostly due to the location of Western Australia. The interweaving stories worked well however there wasn't much detail or substance to much of it, to make it more easy to follow. But in some parts it was hard to say that it wasn't a missed opportunity. The acting wasn't great, especially for serious scenes, this very much so affected the tone as a serious scene was set up but came across as comedic. Odessa Young was passable. Her performance didn't excel in any scene and for a film with her name making up half the title, you expect that. To conclude, the film did get the story on track with the help of a very surprising moment near the end which was very well set up. But other than that, it came across as dull and confusing. 5/10

This movie very, very slowly draws you in, beguiling you with all the trivial little details of the characters life, while building a family dynamic that eventually hits you over the head with brutal force. This is highly skilled, visionary, storytelling. The direction is steely strong, while delivering a wistful atmosphere. All performances are strong with Odessa Young a stand out in the prime role and of course the other key actor ( the australian outback) setting an overwhelming tone. This is a movie for the patient viewer, a viewer who is prepared to submit to the vision of the director and then eventually be rewarded with an unexpected tragic conclusion.

My wife and I endured an hour of "Looking for Grace" before we both conceded that life is too short to waste on crap like this and walked out of the cinema. The acting was tedious, the pacing horrendous, the script a dogs breakfast and it was just a painful experience. The timing of the actors was shocking, it was like watching the early rehearsals of a poorly directed stage play, I think the director was on sleeping tablets at the time of the directing! Australian movies have enough trouble drawing big audiences which is wrong,our movies are up there with the best in the world, this dud however is not in that category and will certainly not attract too many "bums" on seats.