Dear Claudia

Dear Claudia is a refreshing and entertaining Australian comedy. It's surprisingly engaging: and Bryan Brown, who is cast against type as a shy romantic, is really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. All the cast were good, especially Rel Hunt and Deb Mailman. It's a delightful story shot in a beautiful location. The idea of two people being drawn together by the voices of strangers from letters in a mailbag is really clever. It's a terrific feel good film from another promising Australian first time director.

I'll cross many a crab infested tropical island stream to support Australian film but I can't find much to recommend Dear Claudia which somehow got a recent release in our multiplexes.

In spite of starring two favourites Bryan Brown and in a much smaller role Derborah Mailman, Dear Claudia is a sunny but fundamentally forgettable flick in the old geyser gets young bird on tropical island category.

Walter (Bryan Brown) has had the hots for local bar tender Claudia for years. He's the local postman in a small Queensland town; a frustrated nice guy postman who flys the local mail run. Claudia (Aleksandra Vujcic) has a troubled past it seems and together they are stranded on a deserted island when the plane is downed in a storm.

They do the palm tree, love in paradise thing similar to Anne Heche and Harrison Ford in the recently released Six Days Seven Nights but a weak script and a wooden, sometimes strange performance from Vujcic leave this one permanently stranded between high and low tide.

There are some very nice sand castles though and Bramston Island looks pretty nice.

The script for this film is wall to wall exposition and floor to ceiling cliches. The direction is at best dire and at worst dramatically incontinent. Who suffers more from the performances the actors or the audience I cannot tell. The director and the script should have been left with the plane in the first shot.That is at the bottom of the sea, for those who have not seen it. Brian Brown, Sorry, you have done some fine pieces but this is not one of them.

This movie is dumb, yet endearing, fast-moving, and fun. The "plot" makes no particular sense, but everyone is having so much fun, who cares? And, Bryan Brown remains one of the sexiest and wittiest leading men for us over-40's to watch.