HERE's a welcome change for moviegoers tired of depressing drug dramas set in grimy parts of Sydney. Producer-director Michael Egan and American writer Bernie DeLeo's collaboration (filmed on digital video around Sydney's harbour and northern suburbs) is closer to the Rock Hudson-Doris Day era romantic comedies than anything else that has been made in Australia in the past few years.
Rhett Giles is Fred Thatcher, a struggling actor whose biggest role has been the "third pleb" in Julius Caesar. He takes a temp secretary's job at a law firm and finds himself answering to career-minded lawyer Lesley (Joy Smithers) who has a steady boyfriend Graham Gaines lll (Walter Kennard) who isn't faithful.
When Lesley falls for straight-shooter Fred, she can't bring herself to confess to her snobbish Melbourne parents that he's an actor, so introduces him at their dinner party meeting as a partner in the law firm.
Fred breaks off the relationship as he is preparing for his biggest acting role.
He's cast in an outdoor production of Macbeth that becomes a farce when Lesley's opening night pleas for a reconciliation are broadcast over his microphone.
Giles and Smithers make an agreeable pairing, Rory Williamson as conceited actor Geoff Dixon has the best of the supporting roles, Robert Agganis's camerawork is impeccable, and Melanie Horsell's music perfectly complements Egan's approach to the whimsical romance.
Egan has not been able to interest any national distributors in his pleasant movie and has taken on the task himself of having it shown. It is booked for a season at the Schonell until Saturday week.
Review - Brisbane Courier Mail
March 24, 2006