Honestly the two lead actors were great and have so much charisma. I love them and the female lead is just gorgeous and good at her craft. She also co-wrote the screenplay. The humour and some key lines of dialogue are worth watching for alone. My expectations are high as It starts out at a cracking pace but unfortunately it starts to slow up at the mid point. The problem is a failure to identify the a key protagonist (the mum) so we loose track. This film would have worked better if we had alternating story lines and a multiple protagonist set up. The problem with films is that we need to be able to connect to the key characters who we are supposed to empathise with very early in the film and we don't have that connection with the mum so in the end the sentiment feels contrived.
The story is about a young woman who is partly indigenous (if there is such a thing) and she is about to marry her man from a European background. A clever use of the symbolism just in this point alone. Anyway she wants to get married in the Darwin, NT where her parents live. Unfortunately her indigenous mum has left her father and gone walkabout to find herself and this is the entire plot of the film.
We can't feel the empathy that we need to feel towards mum because she was introduced too late in the film and by the time she is introduced it just makes the ending look superficial. Anyway her mum wants to belong to her place of birth and reconnect with her family. This is a powerful storyline but it is way underplayed. As I said I wished we could have been invested in this from the beginning of the film. It is such a valid value to pursue but not pulled off totally in this instance and by the end of the film we feel like we are going through the motions of what a "good film should be."
Still there are so many beautiful aspects to this film. with great performances and is well shot and edited. I still felt affection for mum (and all the characters) but I wanted to know her better and for this reason the story isn't as powerful as it could be. I feel that the writers missed the opportunity to say something stronger. Still congrats. What an effort. Hope to see more of this type of work and the hint of the brilliance to come from these writers.
The story is about a young woman who is partly indigenous (if there is such a thing) and she is about to marry her man from a European background. A clever use of the symbolism just in this point alone. Anyway she wants to get married in the Darwin, NT where her parents live. Unfortunately her indigenous mum has left her father and gone walkabout to find herself and this is the entire plot of the film.
We can't feel the empathy that we need to feel towards mum because she was introduced too late in the film and by the time she is introduced it just makes the ending look superficial. Anyway her mum wants to belong to her place of birth and reconnect with her family. This is a powerful storyline but it is way underplayed. As I said I wished we could have been invested in this from the beginning of the film. It is such a valid value to pursue but not pulled off totally in this instance and by the end of the film we feel like we are going through the motions of what a "good film should be."
Still there are so many beautiful aspects to this film. with great performances and is well shot and edited. I still felt affection for mum (and all the characters) but I wanted to know her better and for this reason the story isn't as powerful as it could be. I feel that the writers missed the opportunity to say something stronger. Still congrats. What an effort. Hope to see more of this type of work and the hint of the brilliance to come from these writers.