Praise

The basic story of Praise, from first-time director John Curran, is fairly simple: a laid-back, chain-smoking asthmatic named Gordon (Peter Fenton) becomes involved with Cynthia (Sacha Horler), a nymphomaniac afflicted with severe eczema. From the start, their co-dependent relationship is not healthy, but, as the gulf between their sexual needs widens, they begin to grate on one another. It is clear from the beginning that the better developed and more interesting of the two protagonists is Cynthia. So, when the concluding scenes focus not on her, but on the considerably less engaging Gordon, the resulting anticlimax causes the otherwise-searing movie to end on a discordant note. Despite the off-key finale, Praise is still a powerful and occasionally disturbing experience. Most movies, especially mainstream ones, like to tap-dance around sexual themes for fear of offending a puritanical audience. Praise attacks these issues head-on by illustrating the kinds of sexual trade-offs that have to be endured for a relationship to work. In this case, it's the woman who has the sexually voracious appetite and the man who is passive, but the patterns would be similar if the circumstances were reversed. Praise is as honest emotionally at it is when dealing with sexual issues - it doesn't lather on the melodrama to make its point. It is compelling precisely because it stays focused on the characters and their dysfunctional, psychologically complex relationship.

Hesitantly I went to this movie after reading an interesting review on a local freebie. As I expected we were about 10 people watching this film at peak time (Friday night) in a major art-films theater. It didn't matter because this is perhaps one of the best films I have seen this year. This a fully realized piece with extraordinary performances, excellent photography, superb set design/atmosphere, music, certainly the work of a great director. The story of two people who get together in a dead end relationship becomes fascinating the longer one watches them walk the road towards its logical conclusion. I personally didn't care about their "motivations" or their "backgrounds" as I have ceased to expect any logic from life. I took each second the way it came, each surprising turn, each new wrinkle in an apparently plotless movie. The ending is absolutely perfect as anyone will interpret it the way he/she wants. For me it brought up the power of memories/dreams/fantasies that don't let go, where pale and boring reality can't compete, even if one is aware that a fantasy is a fantasy. This film is much better than anything that has come out of Sundance and could have had a good shot at Cannes.

A must see if you like Bergman films: I was a thoroughly depressed individual when I walked out, and very happy to be one.

Great, thrilling, scarily intimate. In its first half hour, this astonishing Australian feature gets so close to its characters you feel the director is touching your skin. Gordon (Peter Fenton) is a type well known to people in that age between Bill Clinton and the Backstreet Boys: smart, alert, passive, asexual, easily emotionally manipulated. Cynthia (Sacha Horler) is a big girl with a big appetite for beer and the male organ; she needs sex desperately, helplessly, in the way a love-starved puppy races in circles in need of a touch. The movie records the birth pangs, first steps, clunky adolescence, and quick death of a relationship. Like Wong Kar-wai's HAPPY TOGETHER, most of it takes place in a crappy flophouse apartment. That's it--that's the movie. And every detail in it, from the stigmata-like blood flow of Cynthia's eczemous skin, to the fellatio in a milky bathtub, to the reaction of a horny couple to a violent row, is flawless.

The director, John S. Cullen, is all about getting it right, and so he does--to the point where you can find yourself mouthing aloud the dialogue seconds before it happens. This isn't because the movie is cliched; quite the opposite. It's because the movie gets things about falling in and out of love that no one--nobody, not even those who have made the Big Famous Movies About Sex--has hit. PRAISE seems to have had no luck in the theatres; perhaps it will live on in its IFC afterlife. All praise to Strand Releasing, the best distributors of foreign and independent movies in America. If you want to see a non-studio movie on a subject other than a cute boy and his grandpa, or a wily chef who woos all the ladies, you have Strand to thank for your satisfaction.

I'm just not too sure about this film. I loved the book, but somehow the film is just missing something. I think that you are not treated to as much of Gordon's inner thoughts and motivations, and so he comes off as less of a sympathetic character than in the novel. I concede, though, that it would have been quite difficult to achieve some sort of balance in the portrayal of the main protagonists, especially considering that Cynthia is such a dominant, aggressive (albeit sexually) personality.

Despite my misgivings though, the performances are fantastic, especially Sacha Horler as Cynthia.

Probably a common gripe from anyone living in Brisbane is that although the film is set here, it is so obviously not filmed here. I've heard all the stories about budget constraints and what not, but it still irks me (and many others) that a cult brisbane novel was filmed in sydney, no matter how universal its themes.

Like the previous reviewer I read about "Praise's" appearance in our local art theatre (may have been the same showing) and came down to check it out. Like great writing, great film-making successfully journals the trials of everyday human conditions, rather than stringing together cinematic cliches. "Praise" accomplishes this as we immediately believe there are no actors, only we the audience feeling rather voyueristic and nodding with every move Gordon & Cynthia make as if we would have done the same. Unlike many directors, John Curran leaves much to his audience's judgement. I knew I'd watched the great telling of a great story, but also had a sincere appreciation for Curran's respect of our integrity as viewers. I'm left wondering why it took two years for "Praise" to reach Hollywood. Did someone in Australia put it in a bottle and throw it in the ocean toward the United States, drifting toward North America while we were plagued with "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Mission Impossible 2"? Thank you!