Erskineville Kings

An excellent performance from Hugh Jackman, in his first straight dramatic role after an exalted career in stage musicals, is the only saving grace for Erskineville Kings, the debut feature from former advertising whiz Alan White.

This is a highly self-indulgent and pretentious piece, filled with laughable nomenclature, savagely stilted dialogue, and the shoddiest technical direction seen in an Australian film for well over a decade.

I saw this film when it was selected to open the 1999 Australian Film Institute Awards screenings in Perth. Aside from Jackman, who has some chance for an award in a lukewarm year for male actors in Australia, Erskineville Kings will undoubtedly disappear without trace when its cinematic release concludes in about a month's time.

Erskineville Kings

Avoid this one.

Erskineville is an inner suburb of Sydney near the bottom of the social scale (or at least it was in the 1970s when this movie is apparently set.) Young man returns home on father's death. To greet him are a couple of dissolute mates, a nice ex-girlfriend and a brother eaten up with bitterness after having to look after the old boy in his declining years. Mum shot through many years ago and brother is pretty bitter about that too. Young man was driven out by Dad's drunken violence and doesn't understand why the brother is so hostile. He finds out eventually, but we're past caring.

One or two good performances, especially Aaron Blabley as one of the noxious mates. The whole thing was too thin even for a short (80 minute) feature and the camera spends too much time slowly scanning the crumbling Victorian buildings of Esrkineville. Maybe it would have worked as a 30 minute piece. As it is, a dead bore.

A mixed bag of comedy and drama. Hugh Jackman shines and you can see his screen presence straight away. The overall tone is inconsistent, but the story never wanders of the track. The film is slow and the support characters are a little lacking.

A year later Hugh Jackman would become Wolverine, and that's that. But I only heard about this movie - a low low budget Australian production - after reading a review for Prisoners (2013) which said "not since Erskineville Kings have I seen such a powerful performance by Jackman," or something like that. So, I dug deep. Shocked it only has 500 ratings, being Jackman's third movie and the one before X-Men. Slow? Check. Low budget? Check. Boring? Nope. The acting is solid all around, and Jackman's character isn't even introduced until 30min in, by which point I felt engaged enough by the other actors to feel connected. Also, a young Joel Edgerton offered an entertaining role. So, the drama was tangible but the humor was clverly injected to keep you from sinking in the melancholy. The emotional "climax" was superbly performed by Jackman and star Marty Denniss. Not my usual kind of movie but it had respectable substance nonetheless.

An excellent drama showing typical laconic, dry Australian humour. This is also exhibited in "Mullet". A very good study of unresolved issues between siblings, their loyalties to each other and their parents and the results of parental abuse. Mateship and machismo was dealt with realistically. There was a pervasive atmosphere of loneliness and desolation as shown in the deserted street scenes which added to the desperation of the players.

The awkwardness and tenderness shown by Marty Denniss' character in the scenes with his girlfriend were very touching.

Great performances as always by Aaron Blabey and Hugh Jackman.