AUSTRALIAN RULES
5/10
Australia 2002 : Paul Goldman : 98 mins
Some rules are made to be broken, according to the poster tagline for Australian Rules. A terrible clich – but also strikingly inappropriate for a film which quite slavishly follows the established format for teen-oriented material dealing with Serious Issues. Its an accessible, well-intentioned exploration of racism and family violence, set among the blokey, rural milieu of the outback.
The broad comedy of the early scenes suggest an antipodean Bend It Like Beckham, as were introduced to best pals Dumby Red (Luke Carroll) and Gary Blacky Black (Nathan Phillips), who play in their tiny towns junior Australian Rules Football team. One is aborigine, the other white, but while race isn’t a big issue for the lads, many of the towns adults aren’t quite so forward-thinking. Tensions come to a head after the team wins a major regional tournament, the victory party turning rapidly sour when Dumby is passed over for the Best on Ground trophy he deserves in favour of the teams white captain. The tragic consequences eventually bring Gary into painful confrontation with his violent, abusive father (Simon Westaway)
At times resembling in talent as well as looks a dark-haired version of a very young Jeff Bridges, Phillips copes particularly well with the films jarringly abrupt change of tone at the mid-way point as circumstances force Gary to grow up overnight. But such agility is notably lacking from Goldmans direction and script (co-written with Phillip Gwynne, and based on the latters novel Deadly, Unna?) which becomes increasingly conventional, predictable and schematic as it heads down depressingly dark melodramatic avenues in the second half.
It doesn’t help that the performances with the notable exceptions of Phillips and Celia Ireland (underused as his long-suffering mother) are occasionally a little too rough-edged for comfort, though thankfully none of the kids are quite as wooden as the hapless cast in this years other down-under tale of outback teens battling racial prejudice, Ivan Sens Beneath Clouds. While Australian Rules is clearly several leagues above that shoddy effort, its very small beer alongside Bruce Beresfords The Club, a raucous, blisteringly hilarious expose of the professional ARF scene from 1980 made for adults, not adolescents.
27th August, 2002 (seen 20th, UGC Edinburgh Edinburgh Film Festival)
by Neil Young
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