Mullet

The trouble with this film is that it is empty. Ben Medehlson is usually really good but in this little Aussie drama he really struggles to find his character. It's a pity because it had a few things going for it but didn't deliver.

Not bad as far as it goes, but it needs an ending. It's appalling how many Australian films are made without one. The worst recent offender that I know of is "Russian Doll", but it's only the most naked example - and its very nakedness, when it is set next to "Mullet", almost looks like a virtue. At least "Russian Doll" doesn't have a first-person narrator musing about how hard it is to find endings in real life, and how all endings are also beginnings, and so on, in an attempt to justify the failing.

Still, there's ALMOST an ending, and apart from that there's a fair enough story with interesting characters (more because of the cast than because of the script). I like David Caesar's rather desperate attempts to come up with fish metaphors for what's going on - and the wonder of it is, he succeeds. For the record, though, mullet, the fish, isn't so bad as all that. What little flavour it has isn't unpleasant. (You wouldn't want to have it by itself, that's all.) Worthwhile in a small way, certainly nothing to be despised. Like the film. Hey! Another fish metaphor.

Well, I never ate Mullet (an Australian fish living in muddy waters), but this movie didn't necessarily encourage me to try. I saw the movie in a festival in Germany without subtitling. So I thought (cause my Australian English is really not that good) I am somehow missing most of the jokes, but looking at the audience, maybe there were not so many to start with. The story is: A guy nicknamed Mullet comes back to his home village after he left for three years without saying good bye. In the meantime his brother married his ex girl-friend. The film now shows how the people react to him coming back. Most of them squarely tell him to bugger off again, but he doesn't understand why and refuses to change. I think I already gave this movie more story than it has. The characters are going nowhere so is the plot. The end comes out of the blue, very unsatisfying. The actors are o.k. but cannot save a weak script. Save your money for a good Australian beer at your local pub.

. I did my best to like this film, and it has many good things. A reasonably tight script, a good smoldering performance from Ben Mendelssohn in the lead, fine supporting performances from Andrew Gilbert, Susie Porter, Tony Barry, Kris McQuaide and Belinda McClory, rugby league, nice countryside, stark, open, beautiful cinematography, and even a decent theme; what is there at the heart of the Aussie soul?

Well, mullet is a pretty dull fish, and this celebration of it, if that's the right word, just wasn't entertaining. The film even at 90 minutes dragged. Some contrived drama at the end came to nothing. The characters were understandable, if not likeable, but it really just amounted to pointing the camera at a group of country people and saying `tell us about the hollowness of your lives.' It is partly redeemed by a reasonably upbeat ending. It was like a film school piece made by someone with 10 years experience in the industry. It may have some resonance with Australians who have good attention spans (especially residents of Kiama), and is pretty to watch, but mullet like to swim in shallow waters, which this film never leaves.

Mullet is a wonderful piece of Australian cinema.

It almost perfectly captures laconic Australian humour, as its characters try to figure out how to live with each other, even if they're not always easy to deal with.

Great performances from all involved, and good laughs along the way.

Destined to become a minor classic.