Rating: 4/5
Verdict: Flirts with sentimentality, but rich in emotional authenticity.
The source of this surprisingly affecting family drama was the book The Boys Are Back In Town, by English journalist Simon Carr, who worked as Jim Bolger's speechwriter in the early 1990s. (He is now the chief parliamentary sketchwriter for the Independent in London, a man whom Tony Blair described as "vicious"; he's well worth googling).
So the events that inspired the film actually occurred in this country, but the film, an English-Australian co-production, transplants the story to a South Australia so bathed in heavenly golden light that its tourist corporation should have chipped in some dough.
The book, the story of a suddenly solo father's adjustment to raising his sons, was mainly concerned with making a case for the liberating power of parenting by saying "yes" as often as possible. The film, penned with precision, economy and vigour by experienced TV writer Allan Cubitt, expands into a well-observed drama of a small family coming to terms with various kinds of loss and grief.
All the potential was there for a nauseatingly mawkish atrocity and it has to be said that the film flirts with sentimentality on several occasions. But Cubitt and director Hicks (Shine) bring both intelligence and restraint to bear in telling the story of a wordsmith who has to learn a new emotional vocabulary.
The main character here is Joe Warr (Owen), an ace sportswriter whose blissful marriage to Katy (Fraser) ends with her sudden death. He's left in sole charge of five-year-old Artie (a fabulous McAnulty), a process made rocky enough by a combination of his domestic ineptitude and the disapproval of Laura's mother (a deliciously purse-lipped Blake). But when Harry (MacKay), Warr's teenage son by an earlier marriage, turns up for a visit, things get seriously complicated.
There's real chemistry between Owen and the boys and a heartwarming honesty about Joe's characterisation, which reminds us how childish adults can be under pressure. And Cubitt's script, well-shaped and smartly paced, delivers drama and insight in equal measure.
A small film, quite lacking in pretension, it's the kind of co-pro we should be making more of here. Movies with a measure of emotional authenticity are rare indeed, and that's what lifts this above its modest ambitions.
Cast: Clive Owen, Laura Fraser, Emma Booth, Nicholas McAnulty, George MacKay, Julia Blake
Director: Scott Hicks
Running time: 104 mins
Rating: M (offensive language, sexual references)
