damonisho

A convoluted story so sophomoric in its presentation as to suggest it was written by a committee of 13-year olds not yet familiar with the film's (sparse) subject matter. This is a movie of less sophistication than the most banal soaps of daytime TV, intended for an audience that cannot hold a thought longer than 30 seconds and who have little experience of the world outside of TV. The viewer feels some sympathy for the actors, playing a script in which every utterance rings false and every motivation has not been thought through. The only message that comes through clearly in this piece is "we're all fatuous idiots without any kind of a clue". Working to help produce such a bad movie cannot have been satisfying from any of the involved actors' career perspectives. The sex scenes can have only been added in the misguided hope of spicing up a woefully lost film. These scenes have no real bearing on such a skeleton storyline and, with such dumpy- looking participants engaged in coy, passionless grapplings, they are far from titillating. The punch-ups and scuffles are equally unmoving and leave the viewer mystified, wondering why they even happened. After 2 hours of pointless dreck masquerading as emotionally-fraught DRAMA, this tale could have ended in any number of ways, any of which wouldn't have made any difference to what this movie amounted to: cinematic barf. Only thing to do is flush it. Twice.

This film is full of beautiful atmospheric shots that keep it visually engaging. The acting is fine all round: Cate Blanchett is, as always, stellar, but the supporting cast is very strong and appealing. The intensity of the love between Cate B's 'Tracy' and Dustin Nguyen's 'Johnny' is riveting: you cannot look away when these 2 characters are working through their respective past hurts. Hugo Weaving's 'Lionel' portrays a convincingly wrenching vision of heroin withdrawal. The music and the pacing create a nearly unbearable tension.

But, the narrative is full of holes. As a story, the left-out gaps can be filled in by later reflection, but it's a fairly straightforward tale, with no need for confusion had the right parts been left in and others lopped out. A long film, great acting, superb atmosphere, and some good dialogue, but a sketchy narrative.

I'd recommend it anyway.

Set in World War I, 6 Maori soldiers fighting for New Zealand, have become separated from their battalion. They make their way through the bombed out buildings of an evacuated town in the twilight of dawn. Low on ammunition, they hole up for the day in a ruined apartment building. To lessen their chance of being detected by the enemy, they wordlessly agree not to speak. With little water and no food, constantly on their guard, the sound of battle in the distance, their predicament seems dire and desperate.

But these six men, drawing on their shared culture, know how to make the best of a bad situation. The performances of the actors are wonderful to see; each actor, without speaking, deftly breathes life into his character, until the audience knows each personality. Cinematography is very good and the lighting is spectacular. The director succeeds beautifully in using a silent war story to tell the audience about compassion, camaraderie, humour, courage, and tenderness.

I saw this short as part of National Geographic "All Roads" project called "A Short Trip Around the World". Tama Tu was the only dramatic offering of this uneven collection of shorts and stands far above the level of the other pieces. But I would recommend seeing all of "Short Trip" if that's the only way that you can get to see this wonderful film.