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Reviews
The Castle (1997)
review
The Castle is about a typical Aussie battler family who happen to live directly next to an airport in Melbourne, and by next to I mean that the runway ends about 100-200 yards from their house. Their family is extremely happy and almost every member of the family seems to be living a satisfying and 'fulfilling' life. All is well until one day the father, Darryl Kerrigan (Michael Caton), is approached and is told that he must sell his house because the airport is expanding. After an initial f**k off, Dale realizes that this is a serious threat and decides to fight the big business and take everyone to court. The result is a comical journey of the Kerrigan family struggle to keep their house and remain a tight knit happy family. The Castle is a small guy versus the big guys film that has a sentimental emotional core, and many jokes are derived from the story of a charming family defending their home against a compulsory acquisition.
Performances from a talented Australia cast breathe life into a bunch of quirky but lovable characters. Michael Caton is especially great as the father of the family, Darryl Kerrigan, a lovable oaf with a heart of gold. Veteran actor Charles (Bud) Tingwell also appears as a wise lawyer who takes it upon himself to defend the Kerrigans.The script was written by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and Sitch - all regulars on TV's The Panel. They have a sound sense of joke timing, and how to keep audiences interested. The Castle is a rare find; a funny, wonderful piece that shines in its own homely, honest way.
Looking for Alibrandi (2000)
review
Looking for Alibrandi is an outstanding novel written by Melina Marchetta and published by Penguin Books in 1992. It is a story full of love and passion, hatred of foe, and tragic sadness. This novel is so excellent with its sensational ideas that in 2000 the novel was made into a hit movie starring Pia Miranda as Josephine Alibrandi.
Seventeen-year-old Josephine Alibrandi is in her last year at St. Martha's, a wealthy Catholic secondary school for girls whose fathers treat them like princesses. Josephine feels that she doesn't fit in anywhere for the following reasons. She is an Italian whose grandmother moved out to Sydney when she got married. She is on a scholarship at St Martha's and is surrounded by rich snobbish girls who already have modeling careers. Josie has been called a bastard all her life due to the fact that she has never met her father. But for Josie this year, everything changes for the better, and for worse. This is the year that she will meet her father (Michael Andretti) for the first time in her life, but not in the way she had imagined. The year she finds out about her Nonna Katia's affair with an Australian man called Marcus Sandford. He is Josie's mum's real dad, because Nonna Katia's husband Francesco couldn't have children of his own. It also the year that Josie tries to make the man of her dreams fall in love with her. He goes to St Anthony's and is the son of a Member of Parliament, his name is John Barton, and in Josie's opinion he is the greatest debater who ever lived, popular and good looking. Josie and John are very good friends and hang out a lot. Josie thinks that John is perfect and wants to be part of his world, but when John suicides she realizes that not even he belonged in his world.
It takes Josie a long time to get over John, but soon starts going out with a boy called Jacob Coote. Jacob is school captain of Cook High, and Josie and Jacob are always on and off together throughout the novel. Not only does Josie have all of this happening but she also has her HS (the Higher School Certificate) to worry about, because she wants to study law at University. However, once HS is over, Josephine realizes that everything is going to be fine when she looks back on the year and knows who she is. Josephine is Nonna Katia's Granddaughter, and Michael and Christina's daughter. She is not an Italian and not an Australian, but an individual. It's not a bad effort, even if the first half of Looking for Alibrandi demonstrates a good crackling pace and the second, a rather flattened pace. But that is generalizing - it's quite a bumping ride, as we follow the domestic life of Italian born Josephine, who is undertaking her final level of high school. The guy she wants is just out of her reach, then lately, way out of her reach, and the guy who wants her is keen for the feelings to be reciprocated. The mixture of two possible love interests gives Looking for Alibrandi a slight edge on other squishy little heartthrob dramas, and it gets a nod of appreciation from me for not flat lining its characters into their social stereotypes. Some of the last few monologues lost my interest completely, but that's a minor quibble in the scheme of things. A lot of the film is quite enjoyable. It just doesn't quite handle the complexities of its self-narration in a method that can sustain itself as an engrossing picture. Instead, it's a bumpy ride, which in a way reflects the life of its teenage protagonist.