swassociates

I was lucky enough to see this film on a Qantas flight from LA to Melbourne early in December. My expectation was a low budget, low brow, attempt at making a motorsport film. I was truly blown away by what I saw. Anthony Hopkins deserves an Academy Award for the understated performance of Bert Munro. Always polite, and always focused Bert's dream get embedded in your heart and becomes your dream as well. The journey becomes the story with the characters he meets along the way getting obsessed with his vision as well. The scenes at The Bonneville Salt Flats are stunning and picturesque. I was left with a smile I couldn't get off my face and a tear in my eye. A simple film with a simple premise becomes my "Best Of" pick for 2005.

I want the 1 1/2 hours this movie took given back to me. This was low grade science fiction with a time travel twist. I found the dialog particularly annoying with characters constantly talking over one another. The plot twist is weak and the underlying story is meaningless. The film quality is also low with washed out colors dominating the screen. I don't think this was intended. It just looked like bad movie making. If this wins awards at Sundance then the competition must be very low. I was hopeful going in and gave this movie a great chance. It let me down. If you want a good modern time travel movie get Donnie Darko.

For those who need to get a dose of white guilt this movie will do just fine. A fairly gripping story of the travels of three half cast aboriginal girls in a journey back home. They were taken as part of the stolen generations of aboriginals to a school to be educated and to be trained as domestics. Although a terrible time in Australia's past, the guilt pointed at the white man is a little thick and hard to swallow. The performance by Everlyn Sampi playing Molly is exceptionally good and she deserves credit. The scenery of Western Australia is stunning and the panoramas are breathtaking.

2.5 out of 4 stars.