I had relatively high hopes for this, a Scott Hicks and with Clive Owen in the lead. And set in South Australia where I live..........but I was ultimately disappointed. Clive Owen seemed to merely get by in the lead role, rarely displaying any complexity of emotion, and on occasion (perhaps the fault of the script? ) displaying none at all , for instance in response to such a fraught question as the older son asking him " but why did you leave ME?" Or when the same son cries in frustration and anger. It's not as if he is convincingly showing a man who is bad a displaying emotion either , it's more like he couldn't be bothered. There is a similar non-response when later the boy tells him that his mother , Owen's ex-wife , hates him ( the son)
The young actors were very good indeed, acted Owen off the stage I thought, in the depth they brought to their characters.
I do wish, for once , that a movie about a spouse dying could be made featuring an ordinary ,flawed couple, not always these golden blessed types who gaze adoringly at each other and stand silhouetted against perfects sunsets in each others arms.
And anyone who has been close to someone dying of cancer will find the diagnosis of advanced virulent cancer with NO symptoms other than a dramatic collapse and , eventually a Camille-like elegant fading away in his arms, ludicrous.
Smaller things that annoyed me were how did the kids at the beach party know where to go to gate-crash ? Maybe I missed something.
Planes to the UK seem to be easy to hop on to as well, no booking or waiting about ..and as for the older boy's mother taking him to Heathrow airport to fly to Australia when she had had no communication at all from Owen in response to her telling him that the boy was actually coming , yeah, that's likely
Lovely scenery, good young actors, but that's about it for me.
The young actors were very good indeed, acted Owen off the stage I thought, in the depth they brought to their characters.
I do wish, for once , that a movie about a spouse dying could be made featuring an ordinary ,flawed couple, not always these golden blessed types who gaze adoringly at each other and stand silhouetted against perfects sunsets in each others arms.
And anyone who has been close to someone dying of cancer will find the diagnosis of advanced virulent cancer with NO symptoms other than a dramatic collapse and , eventually a Camille-like elegant fading away in his arms, ludicrous.
Smaller things that annoyed me were how did the kids at the beach party know where to go to gate-crash ? Maybe I missed something.
Planes to the UK seem to be easy to hop on to as well, no booking or waiting about ..and as for the older boy's mother taking him to Heathrow airport to fly to Australia when she had had no communication at all from Owen in response to her telling him that the boy was actually coming , yeah, that's likely
Lovely scenery, good young actors, but that's about it for me.