Current Cinema
I haven’t read the book, although I understand it was hugely popular, but M. and I went to see Three Dollars over the weekend, preferencing Australian drama over even what was probably the last chance we had of seeing Million Dollar Baby in the cinemas. I like supporting the Australian film industry, so long as I’m not having to go see any of the usual crass culture-clash comedies featuring Paul Hogan, and David Wenham, for all that he’s a funny-looking bloke who sometimes reminds me more of a stunned mullet than anything else, is a very good actor. Frances O’Connor, with whom I’m less familiar, was also terrific, better than Wenham, in this outing anyway, but for all the performances being good, and the movie being directed (except the pacing is slow as a wet week) and shot well, it doesn’t leave me with an overall positive impression on the way out. I think the problem lies in the script, which is just too writerly, to literary. For all the suspension-of-disbelief problems (and they’re minor, except they add up), there are only a few times when you aren’t hearing the book, translated straight to the screen, without the interpretation that make that transition usually work. Maybe that’s because the author, Elliot Perlman, co-wrote the screenplay, or maybe it’s just a novel that wouldn’t have translated well in the first place. I’d have to read it to be sure, and I’m not inclined to do that now. Next time we splurge, however, it’s my call, and I say: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (and I’m not even a fan of the books).