Swerve

I saw Swerve at the Melbourne International Film Festival last year. What a ride! The films' director Craig Lahiff (previous film fame Heavens' Burning (Russell Crowe) and Black and White (Robert Carlyle)) prefaced the screening by saying "have fun" – I sure did! Too often Aussie audiences seem to take Aussie films too seriously, this was just good old' entertainment and the audience really got into it! Swerve is an action packed and sexy neo-noir thriller with twists, turns and all sorts of goodies in-between. It's a confident film and knows how to have some fun. The twisting plot always keeps you on your toes and the hot Aussie stars David Lyons, Emma Booth and Jason Clarke are all well cast for their roles. It was great to see an Australian film with some proper action in it. Roy Billing and Chris Haywood make some colorful cameos. Travis McMahon plays a ripper of a bad guy and it was good to see Vince Colosimo in some rough-house fight sequences. Hopefully Swerve comes out in cinemas soon – everywhere it plays it gets a great response. Australia should make more movies like this!

This film just had its North American premiere this evening at The Hamptons International Film Festival. The crowd loved this picture. It is big on action and suspense, and it has a strange twist, which I will not disclose. The story is set in a small village in Australia, in which an innocent by standard is inadvertently drawn into a web of sex, drugs, money, and murder. These are all elements that make a good action film. The acting is very well done, the photography and direction are excellent, and Emma Boothe is really sexy. The film received a standing ovation in East Hampton NY, it should hopefully get a wide release *****

Swerve is written and directed by Craig Lahiff. It stars Emma Booth, Jason Clarke, David Lyons, Vince Colosimo and Travis MacMahon. Music is by Paul Grabowsky and cinematography by David Foreman.

It was done absolutely no favours by the marketing department, the studio executives clearly not having a clue what sort of film they had on their hands. Even the home format releases are adorned with enticing slogans such as "The New Mad Max" and etc, which is utter tosh and only of use to dupe high energy action film fans into buying the product.

Swerve is a clinical piece of neo-noir, it stabs its tongue into its bloody cheek whilst adhering with great success to the conventional rules of film noir. The characterisations, the triple pronged narrative front and visual ticks are all here, with a healthy slice of sly humour sprinkled over the top of things.

Story will be familiar to purveyors of noir and its devilish off-shoots. Man comes across the remnants of an auto-mobile crash, bringing him into contact with a gorgeous lady and her less than stable husband. Oh and there's a suitcase full of cash as well. From there it's welcome to noirville – Oz style, as characters battle hard to keep out of the sticky cobweb woven by Lahiff.

Violence and action marries up with the cunning machinations of the characters, where of course nothing is ever as it seems, the means and motivations shady at best. Grabowsky serves up a quirky music score that probably shouldn't fit an Australian neo-noir, but it really does, especially upon reflection of the story at pic's culmination.

Lahiff and Foreman offer up some super cinematography. The Australian vistas are sumptuous, the sun drenched back drops perfect for a sweaty tale of dupe, divide and domination. Classical noir visuals are used with great effect, as shadows and rippled reflections drive home the psychological discord pulsing away in the plot.

Booth (The Boys Are Back), Clarke (Texas Killing Fields/Lawless) and Lyons (Save Your Legs!) turn in crackling performances for their director, with Booth standing out as she sizzles and sauces the femme fatale role that shows an acting talent few give her credit for.

Problems exist with a couple of the action sequences, Lahiff not a dab hand at constructing with conviction. Elsewhere the comparisons with films of a similar ilk, better ones, serve a familiarity factor that some may find hard to forgive (Lahiff practically remaking his own Fever from 1989). Yet this deserves better than its current low ranking on internet sites. A victim of poor marketing as votes from those not expecting a neo-noir have been held against it. Neo buffs should check it out. 7.5/10

Mediocre Australian thriller heavy on characters and plot, but not quite as much on motivation or logic. It all starts off promisingly enough, with some intriguing scenes involving cars, drugs, death and a beautiful woman, but despite knowing well which ingredients he wanted, writer/director Craig Lahiff doesn't quite know how to prepare his dish. Mostly, his idea is to copy similar successful films, such as Tarantino's work or Oliver Stone's U-Turn. And to the extent that Swerve actually works, it's because of all the things we are not aware of in the film's first half, such as the characters' emptiness or the plot's stupidity. The talented Jason Clarke is the film's most positive asset, along with that story in the epilogue.

This film is not classed as such but it is a comedy and an enjoyable one too. It is full of intentional clichés and is darkly funny. It is a shallow film with little credible development of character but it is easy to sympathise with some of the players in this drama and understand their motivation. Others are automata with a single purpose or deranged with jealousy. As light entertainment it is well done and with some beautiful cinematography. It is a pleasant diversion for an hour and a half.