La scommessa

"The Bet" could be described as a triumph of style over substance. There isn't much to the plot. Young stockbroker bets with rich young banker he can make more money over the next 90 days. Stockbroker resorts to illegal methods to get ahead, endangering his relationship with pretty young lawyer. There are a couple of twists in the ending, though one makes very little sense. The film-makers have buffed the whole thing to a high state of gloss with lots of lovely harbour scenery, an atmospheric (if wildly unrealistic) dealing room, harbourside restaurants, smart bars (and real pole dancers), smart cutting, seaside golf and even a trip to the polo at Windsor. There's a nice original score too, in classical style by John Gray. The producers didn't have any government money and did it their way.

The trouble is that this story, unlike Richard Beasley's satirical "Hell Has Harbour Views", is meant to be a serious morality play. Yet the message here seems to be if you are young, greedy and stupid, and going to hell, you might as well do it in style. The women here are gorgeous, the champagne French and the night is beckoning. The concluding scenes have a serious suspension of disbelief issue that I can't go into or I'll give the ending away. Acting, though, is excellent. Matthew Newton (Bert's son, who has been lately having a little local difficulty in his personal life) is great as Will the eager beaver young broker – he's like Russell Crowe's naïve younger brother, with big blue eyes and a love of risk-taking. Aden Young as his handsome, rich and profoundly callous banker mate gives us a study in nastiness. His casual dismissal in public of his beautiful and personable girlfriend Lila (Peta Sargeant) in the same way he might sack a secretary is evidence enough. Sibylla Budd gives us a rounded performance as Tori, the bright young lawyer in love with Will. I also enjoyed Roy Billing as George, Will's father, the Aussie Battler personified (though Roy is actually from New Zealand).

The film-makers, including former actor Mark Lee in his directorial debut and writer/producer Caroline Gerard, an ex- big Sydney law firm employee, have given the whole thing a professional sheen and produced a reasonably entertaining film. The atmospherics are terrific, but the characterizations are pretty basic and the story skew-whiff. Still, it does make a change from stories about Western suburbs junkies. Failure happens in rich suburbs too. Unfortunately it's just as depressing.

In Mark Lee's (remember him from Gallipoli?) feature film directorial debut, a stockbroker, Will (Matthew Newton), has a bet with a banker, Angus (Aden Young), on who can make the most money in 90 days, the winner taking $100K. Naturally, as is the case with such things, careers and personal relationships are sacrificed on the wheel of fortune in order to feed this all-consuming passion.

The 1980's was the hey day of the cut-throat stockbroker and from Trading Places to Wall Street and even Die Hard, this was reflected in the movies of that era. If The Bet is anything to go by, however, then stockbrokers haven't learnt anything in the 20 years hence and they're still a fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants mob with a penchant for suicidal tendencies when the going gets tough. And herein lies the problem of The Bet - it's handling of it's subject matter makes it feel 20 years out of date, conforming to 80's stereotypes as it plays out its predictable hand.

The film is called "The Bet" and, indeed, there is duly a "bet" which sets the narrative in motion but from that point on, it strangely doesn't bear too heavily on the story. There's several moments within the film where you think to yourself, "oh yeah, that's right, this is about the bet." It's always lingering in the background but somehow always finds itself secondary to the stockmarket action. Perhaps this is because the inherent tension, elation and tragedy involved in the trading of stocks is so interesting but, in any case, some narrative balance would not go astray. Likewise, some balance could be brought to the pace of the film. There's little build up to the point where everything must inevitably go wrong; everything seems to be going swimmingly until suddenly it isn't; the mood of the film turns on a die. Also it can be difficult to connect the dots at times and, subsequently, clumsy slabs of dialogue are required in order to make it clear.

There are, however, some nice performances here, particularly Matthew Newton who effortlessly shakes off recent media reports of domestic violence in his private life, and Sibylla Budd is easy to like even if she is playing essentially the same character from The Bank.

It's entertaining enough to make it a worth a look but it won't change the world.

I don't want to give any of the movie away and I fear I will do this if I say too much about the movie itself. I've just finished watching this gem of a movie and will re-watch it again tomorrow with my partner.

If you enjoy movies along the lines of 'Wall Street,' 'Boiler Room' and ' Glengarry Glen Ross' and 'The Bank,' then I think you will enjoy 'The Bet' ('The Bet on Bet'). Even if these movies are not usually on your watch list, give 'The Bet' the benefit of the doubt and I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

For a director's first feature, I take my hat off to Mark Lee and also to the writer/producer who for reasons previously stated in another post did an amazing job getting this movie to our screens. For the most part the cast were excellent but a special mention to Matthew Newton for what I found to be a very real portrayal of someone in his position.

We could nitpick over minor faults and details here and there as we could with every movie, however, considering budget restraints, location, scheduling etc. etc., 'The Bet' stands proudly alongside other great Australian movies of the past 10 years.

If you're interested in checking some out, here are a few I'd highly recommend... 'The Bank,' 'Better Than Sex,' 'Looking for Alibrandi,' 'Lantana,' 'The Oyster Farmer,' 'Little Fish,' 'Japanese Story,' 'Chopper,' 'Romulus, My Father,' 'The Proposition,' 'Shine,' 'Wolf Creek,'.... the list is endless.

I wish more of these stylish and artistic movies from Australia and other parts of the world were promoted a little more worldwide. From what I've been told it had enough trouble being shown in it's country of origin thanks mainly to mainstream cinemas continually refusing to show mature movies with substance instead preferring to pander to one particular and constant demographic. Wake up! You show it, we'll come to see it!!

Finally, well done Australia, another movie your industry should be very proud of and I look forward to spotting more films by this director and writer/producer.

Enjoy!

For more great Australian movies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_set_in_Australia

http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.12707

Really enjoyed this film when I saw it at the Sydney film festival. It's message concerning the perils of corporate greed and it's ramifications are very eloquently stated. It features some good Australian actors who all play their roles well. Special mention needs to go to Aden Young, who absolutely rocks in this. What happened to this guy? The way he carries off his arrogant, rich boy character is nothing less than mesmerising. Matt Newton also does very well as the main character who's life bears the brunt of the bet that is referred to in the title. It was good to see an Australin movie which actually made you think whist being entertaining, which is rare as our industry seems to only spew out lame comedies or drug movies. If you see it advertised it's well worth catching.

I saw The Bet in Sydney last night. Wow! It is a brave film from a first time film maker. Brave for several reasons. The writer/producer Caroline Gerard raised the funds entirely from the private sector and then set about assembling a top rate team of cast and crew who have delivered a remarkable ensemble effort.

The story appears at the outset to be fairly a standard Sydney Harbour based yuppie drama but by the closing moments you realise that the story is anything but pedestrian. I wont give the game away but suffice to say it is quite a powerful and unique result. The casting is wonderful and Matt Newton manages to pull off a character that is believable, likable, trapped, in love and great looking all in the space of 90 minutes. Aden Young almost scene steals with his Machiavellian portrayal as Newton's friend/foe.

Mark Lee directs his first feature here and has a great command of the medium. I guess when you have 40 plus film credits under your belt and have worked under Peter Weir, Russell Burton, Chris Noonan and John Duigan among others you tend to pick up a thing or two!

The music is another triumph here. The original music is symphonic and deftly enhances the emotion of each moment in a way that is sometimes lacking in modern Australian cinema. The use of Bach in the apartment scenes and the doof doof tracks in the night club are very well placed. I heard some critic banging on about how the music score was overly romantic and inappropriate but don't these folks remember Chinatown or Lolita or After the Deluge?

Go and see the film before it closes and if you miss it at the cinemas get the DVD!