PALM BEACH : Friday 9th August 2019.

I saw 'PALM BEACH' towards the end of last week, and this M Rated Australian drama comedy offering is Directed and Co-Written by Australian Actress, film and television Director and Screenwriter Rachel Ward and stars an ensemble cast set amidst the back drop of Palm Beach on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The film had its Premier screening at the recent Sydney Film Festival, went on general release in Australia on 8th August and has so far met with mostly mixed Reviews.




To mark a milestone birthday, Frank (Bryan Brown and real life husband of Rachel Ward) and his wife Charlotte (Greta Scacchi) decide to throw a three-day party to celebrate at their luxurious house at Palm Beach, welcoming their nearest and dearest friends. Frank flies in long term friends Leo (Sam Neill) and his wife Bridget (Jacqueline McKenzie) and Billy (Richard E. Grant) and his wife Eva (Heather Mitchell) from various corners of the globe having arrived Business Class in Sydney and then flown by private charter seaplane upto the ritzy Northern Beaches oceanside suburb of Palm Beach. Upon arrival the two couples are ushered into the spectacularly lavish, light, airy and spacious home overlooking the peninsula out to the lighthouse perched atop Barrenjoey Headland. Almost immediately the Dom Perignon is flowing and the gathered families including adult children sit down to a lavish meal of prawns, oysters, salmon, more Champagne and wine aplenty. By now we have also learned that Frank, Leo and Billy were once involved in a band together called 'The Pacific Sideburns' who had one hit record called 'Fearless' back in 1977 but little beyond that.

Rounding out the guest list are Frank and Charlotte's grown up kids - the aimless son Dan (Charlie Vickers) and new doctor Ella (Matilda Brown, and real life daughter of Brown and Ward), with Caitlin (Frances Berry) the daughter of Leo and Bridget, together with Holly (Claire van der Boom) the daughter of a departed friend and her new sheep farmer beau Doug (Aaron Jeffrey).

After a satisfying lunch, the hosts and guests all settle down in various parts of the house enjoying a night cap and pleasant conversation. All that though is about to implode as Leo confides in Charlotte that he had a recent skin cancer scare from which he is now fully recovered and that he deeply regrets a decision they and Frank made together twenty years ago and is now willing to tear their families apart so that the truth can finally emerge. This news comes as a devastating blow to Charlotte who Leo tasks with telling Frank of his decision after all these years. Just then Leo and Charlotte are called into the lounge to watch an award winning French TV commercial for adult incontinence nappies put together by Billy but using their song 'Fearless' as the backdrop to the ad. No one up to this point has seen the ad, not even Eva, and when Leo and Frank hear their music in the background they are needless to say furious.

The next morning Frank makes his peace with Billy and they all go off for a surf. And so another day begins and so does another day of eating and drinking. Amidst all of this Frank tasks his guests with the construction of an outdoor pizza oven, Bridget lets it slip that she believes that Leo has never really loved her, and Eva as a jobbing Actress is torn between a part playing a grandmother in an upcoming movie much to Billy's constant derisory comments that at 60, she is still too young to be playing such roles, despite the fact that such roles are the only one's now being offered to her.

Added to this there is Holly and Doug's emerging romance, the fact that Frank is secretly on anti-depressants and ever since he sold his hugely successful sportswear company, 'Swagger Gear', he has felt 'dead inside' and he can barely relate to his no hope son, Dan. And the final insult to Frank is Billy's constant comments about twin chimney pots blotting the view from the house out across the Headland and the two bodies of water either side - to which Frank responds after several niggling comments by taking a hammer to said chimney pots in a fit of rage, only to be rescued down from his ladder by his gathered friends, but not before Frank has muttered a few terse words in their direction.

The next night the friends are all taken by boat to a beachside restaurant where more celebrations follow and a firework display in Frank's honour. Ella makes a speech to mark her fathers birthday which starts off very negatively but ends on a positive one to which Frank is invited to respond but is so overcome with emotion that he can't. One on the walk home Holly reveals to Doug after he has asked for her hand in marriage, that she is not the one for him, and he is obviously knocked for six by her rebuttal.

The next day the group board the boat once again and head up the waterway to a secluded spot and enjoy another lavish lunch at a picnic spot under the trees. Doug has repaired the outboard motor to Franks speed boat, so enabling Dan to take out Caitlin on a doughnut. While speeding along Dan is distracted and to avoid a collision with a youngster enjoying himself out on the water swerves the boat, loses control and is tossed overboard and knocked unconscious in the fall. He is rushed to hospital in an ambulance with a very concerned Frank and Charlotte by his side, while the other house guests all return to Palm Beach in a very sombre mood awaiting news. Doug meanwhile has said goodbye to Holly for the last time.

In hospital Dan regains consciousness and it is determined that he has a broken collar bone only and is therefore out of danger. Frank makes his peace with Dan and vows never to question him again, and Dan responds tearfully that he'll make his own way in the world and will prove himself worthy. Holly meanwhile texts Doug to say simply that she can't have children, at which point he turns the car around and returns to Palm Beach.

With all of this going on Leo, Charlotte and Frank confront each other over the secret that they have harboured for over twenty years. And that is who is the true biological father of Dan. Leo believes it his him, following a one night stand with Charlotte, even though Frank has raised him. Ella overhearing the discussion comes to the rescue with the results of a DNA test that she and Dan had done some years ago proving that 99.95% that they are biological brother and sister, and unless Leo slept with Charlotte giving rise to Ella as well, then they must both be Frank's children. And so this matter too is resolved once and for all.

The next morning Eva awakes early, packs her things and tells Billy that she is leaving him, for good. She orders a cab, it arrives and off they drive with Billy chasing the cab on foot down the drive. He implores Eva to give him one last chance, apologises profusely for his actions, his attitude and the things that he has said and done. Reluctantly she agrees to come back on the basis that he promises that the next ten years will be their best ten years. As the sun sets on another day, the pizza oven has been fired up, cocktails are shaken and the party gets underway once again and everything is good in the world.

'Palm Beach' is a take it or leave it, something and nothing, style over substance kinda movie where the views, the vistas and the stunning scenery seen from the sun soaked deck of an opulent unspoilt abode perched above the ocean on one side and Pittwater on the other take priority over the plot. This is the story of a largely group of seniors (aged 60 years+) with their affluent, privileged lifestyle living off the royalties of their one hit wonder from yesteryear and their subsequent mostly successful careers, and their close knit mateship, all suffering from first world problems, getting under the skin of each other but willing to forgive and forget in a heartbeat because they, after all, are long term friends and all disputes can be settled with a good feed washed down with a chilled Chardonnay. Ward has assembled a fine cast of Antipodean movie royalty here (many of whom have worked numerous times with each other over the years) and you certainly get a sense that filming this movie must have been a hoot all the way through. But, I was left wanting more melodrama, more laughs, and more substance in what is described as a drama comedy, rather than just being kept engaged by a film that really has few standout moments other than the backdrop of Palm Beach and the environs itself.

'Palm Beach' warrants two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE WATER DIVINER : Tuesday 13th January 2015.

I went into Russell Crowe's Directorial debut offering, 'THE WATER DIVINER' with reasonably high expectations and came out feeling decidedly let down. Aussie Russ is an Oscar winner after all; has built up a relatively strong portfolio of films; worked with some of the best Directors, Screenwriters and Cinematographers that are working today; has come across a story that could have been far greater than the sum of its parts; and has a story too that should resonate with just about every living soul in Australia and New Zealand at least given that its subject matter is about to have its centenary.

This is a fairly simple tale of northern Victoria farm dwelling Joshua Connor (Crowe, with lead Actor credit too) in the immediate lead up to and the aftermath of WWI. It is 1919, and he owns and lives on a huge farm and, you guessed it, has water divining skills too. These skills we see fairly early on as he walks around some distant paddock with a couple of wire coat hangers searching for water, and behold, when said wires cross and remain crossed - there be water! And so he starts to dig in the belting heat of the day until he is fifteen feet down and strikes . . . water! Clearly the man has talent!

What we then learn is that Joshua and his wife have three sons - all in their late teens who have packed themselves off to war in 1914, and Joshua reminisces about their departure with the three young lads literally ride off into the sunset to go to war. We then fast forward to late 1915, and the ANZAC's have been battling it out in their fiercest fighting with the Turks at Gallipoli. Overcome by the weight of sheer numbers the ANZAC's eventually retreat having sustained some 10,000 casualties versus 70,000 on the side of the Turks. In flashback however, we see some close quarter fighting between these two opposing sides and in the exchange of machine gun fire sons Edward (James Fraser) and Henry (Ben O'Toole) are killed leaving Arthur (Ryan Coor) injured by their sides.

Back to 1919 rural country Victoria and Joshua and his wife Eliza (Jacqueline McKenzie) try to keep the dream alive that there sons have survived the war against all hope. Tragically Eliza takes her own life racked with the pain of their loss, and burying her in the local cemetery Joshua vows to bring his sons home to lie beside her. And so he jumps on a boat in no time to make the three months journey to Istanbul where his search begins.

What follows is Joshua being hijacked by a little trumped up kid who nicks his bag and all his belongings but leads him to a hotel where he meets Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) the owner of the establishment looking for paying guests in the aftermath of a war stricken country. First Ayshe greets Joshua warmly, but when she learns that he is Australian she wants him evicted, excommunicated and extracted immediately given what went down at Gallipoli. Interestingly though it is no time at all before Ayshe becomes the love interest and romantic glances and playful conversation ensue! Meanwhile Joshua starts his search via the local war office to determine the whereabouts of his believed dead sons, with the aid of a diary whose last entry was August 7th 1915. He gets very short shrift from the stereotypical stuck-up stiff upper lipped pompous arse that is Captain Charles Brindley (Dan Wyllie) who wants to promptly return Joshua back from whence he came and let the Army deal with such matters. Having none of it and getting no where fast Ayshe gives Joshua a lead of a sailor friend who can get him to Gallipoli quickly and efficiently by water if he crosses his palm with silver, and so Joshua does just that.

Before you know it Joshua is there face to face with Lt. Col. Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney) who presents a warm considerate caring hand to Joshua, but sees his quest as fruitless amongst the 10,000 or so ANZAC bodies that have to be found, identified and accounted for - what hope is there of finding three young lads across the whole peninsula? But, let's not forget that Joshua IS 'The Water Diviner' and surely he can divine human remains too . . . and yes he can! It seems that fairly easily he has a sense for where they are likely to be and behold a few inches under the surface beneath caked mud and clay Hughes' men dig up the remains of Edward and Henry as evidenced by their dog tags. But no Arthur!

All of this is overseen by Major Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan) who gives the most solid and convincing performance of the entire cast. He was the man leading the campaign for the Turks at Gallipoli and therefore responsible for the death of so many ANZAC's - including probably Edward & Henry. Now post-war he is aiding the Australian contingent locate their dead soldiers given his intimate knowledge of the Gallipoli terrain. An unlikely friendship develops between Joshua and Hasan that eventually leads Joshua to learn that Arthur may still be alive having been taken prisoner after his brothers were killed.

And so the search shifts to Arthur amidst the backdrop of continuing Greek and Turk unrest across the streets of Istanbul and beyond, the love interest between Joshua and Ayshe, Ayshe's own family troubles, and the brick walls that Brindley continues to build around Joshua. Eventually riding through some remote Turkish village on horseback with Hasan and set upon by Greek rebels Joshua has a divining sense that Arthur is holed up somewhere in the locale . . . and by Jove, he is!

As for Crowe's Directing achievement, on the one hand we see some moments of real tension - a billowing dust storm in flashback sweeping toward the farm where Joshua comes to the rescue of his three young sons; some moments of beauty - inside Istanbul's Blue Mosque more for artistic effect than anything else - a gap filler almost because this film was the first ever to be allowed to film inside this famed temple; but everything else is stilted, disjointed, the acting wooden and the storyline plods along with stereotype characters, scene fillers and cheesy dialogue.

As an Actor I like Russell Crowe and he has more than proven his credentials over the years, but as a first time Director - he still has some way to go to fine tune his Directing skills if he is to add this skill to his Resume with any real merit. You don't need to see this on the big screen and can easily wait for the DVD/BluRay. Having been released in Australia and New Zealand on Boxing Day 2014, it get its US release on 24th April 2015 . . . not an insignificant date!

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-