Released January 14, 2010
Excluding Sweeney Todd and its more sophisticated brethren, movie musicals have, traditionally, been a place for escapist, joyous entertainment. Think Astaire and Rogers, Gene Kelly or even Baz Luhrmann’s opulent Moulin Rouge. Rachel Perkins' new film, with a distinctly Australian flourish, strives but fails to achieve this same level of immersive fantasy.
Lurching incoherently from one musical number and moments of attempted humour to the next, we follow Willie (Rocky McKenzie), an Indigenous teenager sent to a Catholic Mission in Perth from his home in Broome. Not appreciating the strict rules imposed by the nasty Father Benedictus (a game Geoffrey Rush), and keen to declare his love for Rosie (Jessica Mauboy), he flees back home towards the inevitable road movie on the horizon.
Road movies work when the episodic escapades enlighten our heroes on their journey of discovery. It helps if they are entertaining. This was true of the far superior, and similarly themed, Stone Bros. Here, it’s not. If it’s not Magda Szubanski’s sleazy Roadhouse owner causing us to roll our eyes, it’s the unconvincing acting and ramshackle story telling. It’s ironic that a film so gleefully pleading for tolerance is populated by painful clichés such as the combie van hippies who offer our insipid hero and his drunk mentor, Uncle Tadpole (Erine Dingo), a ride north.
Still, a musical lives or dies on the success of its musical numbers, which are frequent but random and forgettable. Neither enhancing character nor forwarding the plot, they exist only to add vapid colour and energy. And somehow, despite this exuberance, Bran Nue Dae manages to bore. This is especially so in the absurd finale which involves more twists and reversals than the third Pirates of the Caribbean. By that point I wished I could borrow Szubanski’s .303 rifle to extract myself from the misery.
Bran Nue Day’s greatest asset is the gorgeous cinematography from Lord of the Rings’ Andrew Lesnie. I can only give the original writers of the 1990 stage musical the benefit of the doubt that much has been lost in translation.
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