Romulus, Meu Pai

I saw this movie the night before last - it goes to World Wide Release in 6 days time. The movie is an absolute must see - I don't think I can put it better than Helen Garner when she said "I can't think of a single Australian movie with such a dense and complex emotional texture. I know I will never forget it."

The story is uplifting in spite of tragedy of truly Shakespearean proportions. One of the most inspiring things is that Raimond not only survived but grew up to be as he is - the story is about the unbreakable bond between Father and Son, I was often in tears. Romulus was a "Very Good Man" (almost a Saint). We also get a keen understanding of the love of man for his fellow man, from the relationship between Hora and Romulus and especially between Romulus and Mitru.

The time and place is evoked beautifully as well as the colossal struggle that postwar migrants went through in Australia. Most readers will either not know or not remember that these were hard times indeed, in 1961 the Federal Government instituted a credit squeeze which almost destroyed the Australian Economy. The country people suffered much, as did the city people also.

The actors are brilliant - Eric Bana, Marton Csokas, Franka Potenta (you can't take your eyes off her whenever she is on screen - the woman is startlingly beautiful) and Russell Dykstra - all are perfect for the roles. The standout performance however is from the new child actor Kodi Smit-McPhee - he is a discovery on the order of another Haley Joel Osment, Keisha Castle-Hughes or Christian Bale. The boy is in almost every scene and he carries the production almost entirely on his little shoulders.

After the film, I recommend the book - it is beautifully written and easy to read and will explain what happened to all the characters as well as a lot of the subtext (the film coves a period of about four years in Raimond's life - from age 9 to about 13). The final point is that you have to pay attention to the film carefully - subtlety is the word here and dialogue is spare - you really need to look at the people to understand what is going on.

Richard Roxburgh has picked a difficult story to tell through a motion picture. For a first timer, he doesn't do a bad job. Through his cinematographer, he captures the raw Australian landscape beautifully and contrasts it well with the 'depression' of that time. He extracts phenomenal performances from his actors. He also displays the subtle layers quite effectively and seems to have an understanding of how difficult things were during that time. The only problem is that 'Romulus, My Father' moves at an extremely slow pace and some of the events appear patchy rather than smooth. Eric Bana does an excellent job. Marton Csokas is superb. Franka Potente handles a difficult role with élan. Child actor Kodi Smit-McPhee is terrific as Rai who is torn between his parents. The background score has a subtle effect. 'Romulus, My Father' reminded me of 'Angela's Ashes' but in my opinion, the latter remains a superior film.

I just saw this and though a lot of people complained of this movie being slow I adored it. One of our best Australian movies to date. It has a moving story, terrific and very realistic actors but the only problem was the pace. Everything was brilliant but it just avoided perfect with its pace which is a bit of a let down for a movie that everyone knows could have been and kind of is everything. Eric Bana is brilliant and the wife Franka Potente was so good I really understood her character. The movie was a bit predictable at times but it had a sweet ending, interesting character and superb character development. A must see for people probably over thirteen. (Some of the themes are very strong.)

Arena Films in Sydney Australia have developed and produced some of the best small films made here in the last ten years. I have seen ROMULUS; I saw it at a media screening in Sydney mid April 2007. I understand the film will go into release in May 2007. Helmed by John Maynard and Robert Connolly, Arena are responsible for THE BANK, THE BOYS with David Wenham, and SWEETIE among their excellent library of films. However this time, I am delighted to say they have managed to create a film so genuinely superb, so astonishingly well cast and with a major turn as director by actor Richard Roxburgh, I find myself actually struggling for adequate superlatives as to not sound like I am overstating the quality and qualities of this profoundly satisfying and emotionally moving father/son relationship drama. Set in the early 1960s in rural Victoria Australia, it basically tells of the marriage difficulties of a migrant family from eastern Europe. It is the mother with wanderlust that causes the central emotional drama and ripples of overwhelming joy and despair as the men around her, husband his brother and her lovers, and including her 8 year old son Raimond, attempt to hold their extended family together, survive on a farm, and deal with her fracturing emotions. I was the same age as the boy in this film in 1961 and I lived in Sydney among many migrant families from Europe who had moved post WW2 to find a better life here. Many did but equally as many became bewildered in Australia, emotionally lost because they had lost the thread of their village life and European life/morality and found their freedom here created mental and moral abandon... they became lost and found the new country too huge too free and too full of emotional pitfalls: it was just too different: sunny and open yes, but no family bonds and not strong with religious ties. As a result emotional inertia and immorality and sometimes drink and violence took over; just as often was a nervous breakdown. ROMULUS charts all this with skill and motion like no other major new film in the last ten years has been able to do. David Elfick's 1993 film NO WORRIES maybe, or CAREFUL HE MIGHT HEAR YOU from 1983 are very close past emotional and critical successes; this film certainly surpasses them in the child's eye view of a marriage and a family collapse. The casting is just so perfect and I defy anyone to not to be absolutely transfixed at the young boy actor Kodi Smitt who is front and center at all times here. His performance is one of the great child acting performances in any film; period, ever. Richard Roxburgh as an actor is very good, but who knew (apart from savvy Connolly and Maynard) that he could create a visually breathtaking emotionally solid and superbly told story; so often in a dozen scenes he shows one more shot of Raimond just being, as a tail end of the scene and it caps every part of this film perfectly each time. ROMULUS sets a new standard for excellent emotional drama produced here are hopefully erases the bad credit and ill feelings of so many useless and lousy films produced here so far this century:. So many cinemas and their owners have been wringing their hands in despair at the poor results of so many terrible Oz films of late.

The good ones? try these: KENNY, THE BANK, RABBIT PROOF FENCE and THE OYSTER FARMER being the only real shining lights in a very dim recent release schedule. ROMULUS MY FATHER will go into history as one of Australia's best produced films and I personally hope it is loved and applauded Internationally as I expect it to be here.

On the down side: Arena have taken a serious risk in involving Arclight films in an executive production and sales partner role here; Arclight exec producers have been seen for over 10 years as being responsible for some of Australia's worst and most reviled and truly embarrassing films: often critically spewed upon and a complete waste of resources and reputation: for example: the vile cruel CUT or the disgusting WOLF CREEK or CUBBYHOUSE, or lame DECK DOGZ, or idiotic SHOTGUN WEDDING or nonevent BACK OF BEYOND or woeful EXCHANGE LIFEGUARDS are simply hated by the few viewers who wasted time on them or by cinemas who took a chance on them. The appalling WOLF CREEK is now credited with being the start of thew 'torture porn' cycle currently debasing cinemas and communities encouraged to see them (HOSTEL and HOSTEL PART 2 is a direct result of this awful movie)... so I hope Arena survive their relationship with Arclight.

This is what I would call a "slice of life" movie that works, and it works pretty well. It's based on the memoirs of Raimond Gaita, who's now a philosopher and writer, and details what seem to be just a couple of summers in his childhood. And it's a troubled childhood - one that undoubtedly gave him fodder for becoming a philosopher, because one would have to spend a lot of time figuring out what life's about after being raised in that environment.

The title character is Raimond's dad, obviously, Romulus. That part was played by Eric Bana. Bana was quite good and quite convincing in the role. The Gaita family came to Australia from Germany in 1950. Romulus was Romanian, married to a German woman, Christina, played by Frankie Potenta. Christina was obviously emotionally ill, flitting in and out of the family's life, obviously interested in Raimond (who's quite devoted to his mother) but totally incapable of being a mother to him. Romulus is hard-working and devoted, but heavily burdened by raising Raimond essentially alone, with help from a wide and diverse array of family and friends. Eventually he has a breakdown himself and lands in a mental hospital.

As good as Bana (and, for that matter, Potenta) was, it's really Kodi Smit-McPhee as Raymond who stole the show. Large parts of this movie are pretty slow (with sudden outbursts caused by the various trials the family is undergoing) but you develop an interest in Raimond's story, and there comes a point when you feel real pain for him; real sympathy; wondering how in the world he's going to ever be able to overcome this kind of upbringing. Smit-McPhee draws us very powerfully into Raimond's life. It was a fine piece of work by a very young actor.

Not knowing anything about the background of the movie, it was made more powerful when I realized that Raymond was a real person, and that the movie was based on his memoirs. That he could obviously become successful after such a troubled upbringing is a great credit to him. (7/10)