Careless Love

Mildly interesting, but lacks focus.

Set in Sydney, Australia, the story of Linh, a Vietnamese- Australian. By day she is studying at University, by night she is a prostitute/escort. Shows her friends, family and relationships and how her work affects these (or doesn't, to the best of her ability).

This is not new territory, the prostitutes-are-everyday-people storyline. However, it is warmly and sincerely told, without fake sentimentality, manipulation or glamourising the subject.

Where the movie does fall over, however, is that it doesn't really have a point. It drifts throughout, though is never dull. Towards the end, what focus it had is thrown away in a series of contrived, implausible or simply random scenes.

This is all a pity, as the plot was reasonably engaging until then.

Solid performance by Nammi Le in the lead role. Supporting cast are mostly not that convincing, however.

Experience of director/writer John Dulgan shows in this excellently crafted film. Its a nice story driven movie with lots of charm, and charming performance by Nammie Le.

Linh (Nammie Le) is a college student, but her family is about to lose their home, and to help them she takes up a job with the escort service. She has an American art smuggler client who wants to go steady with her, as well as one of her school mate. As part of business, she's asked to go to a party which includes members of her school mates to "do it" with one of them. She also has steady clients, that includes Japanese business man, and afore mentioned art dealer. The story revolves around Linh trying to balance her "professional" life, with her life as a student, a family member, and with her love interest. As the story progress, all of her relationships turns in a surprising way with each of them.

The detail director John Durgan has put into this movie is phenomenal. It reminds me of movies made by Hirokazu Koreeda who is another internationally recognized director in this respect. The communication skills, and ability to tell compelling story of Durgan with his audience is superb. Movie is shot at various locations around Sydney, and the scenery is beautiful.

Nammie Le who's real age is 33 at the time when this movie was shot will shock you as she looks 20 in earnest.

All the actors in this movie must have been hand picked by Durgan as each puts in a superb performance.

One of the best independent movie to come out of Australia or anywhere, this movie is highly recommended for viewing.

This isn't a bad film, by any standard, but it's story is all so familiar. Only it has a few colorful touches to it that heightens it's quality. In some ways it's very much like that very sexy foreign film, Student Services. Our Vietnamese student here is forced to be an escort by the very nicest of pimps I've ever seen (the always wonderful Dave Field. His father has lost his job, so she has to be the bread winner. I was actually staggered to learn this actress was actually 33 when she made this, and this beautiful girl doesn't look a day over twenty. Her performance is okay. I like her independent strong willed character. Nobody knows of her whoring, and when the truth comes out, later, it's far worse than she expected for one her regulars, Peter Brien, an art fraudster, donning an American accent, that's not perfect I must admit, even though his performance is solid, is murdered. He's been hiding out in this apartment, overlooking Coogee. When this hits the papers, and she's implicated with him, hostility comes at her from all fronts. Only her girl flat mate is supportive. This was a nice spin to the story. With this film, you do expect those stereotypical scenes. But above all, this isn't a bad drama, with some quite dramatic. The only real disappointment was that we could of had a better performance from our lead. This film was actually that I expected to be. There are some kinky scenes, and in one funny scene, role playing, where our escort student and her hooker friend plays naughty schoolgirls, who can't suppress their amusement. Ta ta.

This is a great film and that's not an understatement. In fact, it is one of the finest Australian films in ages. That's not exactly saying a lot, but it is a tremendous achievement for the local film industry. With the much missed director/writer John Duigan on board "Careless Love" is deep, thoughtful, well-shot, possesses excellent cinematography and filled with heart-felt performances all-round.

With all honesty, newcomer Nammi Le is a wonderful new talent. Le in the leading role of a prostitute paying her way through university is able to captivate the audience attention from the get-go. The manner in which she approached an extremely difficult character that is trying hard to conquer her own demons of having a double life and drawing a line between love, family and sex is nothing short of amazing to watch. Veteran Peter O'Brien ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine") stars as a customer who befriend Le, works extremely well in a paper-thin role and especially dialogue between the two adds some dimension to the movie. While Andrew Hazzard (from the local "Home and Away" TV series) is at home as the romantic interest, but offers nothing special. Others like Ivy Mak turns in an interesting supporting role as a fellow prostitute and her expressions in the scene when she is raped by an Aussie cop is nothing short of memorable.

All in all, "Careless Love" is a great Australian movie given its budget constraint and subject matter. What makes the film work is simply the exquisite performance from Nammi Le and credits to director John Duigan for delivering an engaging and touching situation that can happen almost anywhere in the world. While there are shortfalls when one look at the film in much clearer details, "Careless Love" remains one of the Australian films to beat for 2012… (Neo 2012)

Neo rates it 8/10

-www.thehkneo.com