Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

If you watch The Hard Word expecting yet another heist/caper flick in the vein of The Bank Job, you're going to be frustrated. At first, the film feels like it's all setup, with no payoff. Then you realize: this IS the film. It's not about some sort of grandiose criminal scheme. It's about these *people,* and their very individual outlook on life. And on that basis, it's really quite brilliant.The three brothers each have their own peculiar point of view. There's the tough guy (Pearce), the oddball (who strikes up an out-of-the-blue love affair with his prison counselor), and the soulful butcher (who gleefully slaughters pigs, but wouldn't hurt a fly). Then there's Frank: the criminal jerk who just can't seen anything but the next big score, and thinks he can manipulate everyone. And, right in the middle, Rachel Griffiths' character -- a somewhat unwilling and perhaps incompetent femme fatale.There's plenty of action in the film, including a climactic heist, but these events are surprisingly low-key. The movie isn't about who gets away with how much. It's just as much about blood sausage, and unusual uses for a lava lamp, and sticking things in a cow, and a dyslexic hit-man... a whole string of strange events that might have been enough for several movies.I found myself puzzled by the film at first, then swept along by its endless stream of remarkable occurrences. And, in the end, I became absolutely enchanted by the three incorrigible brothers, and their optimistic motto: "Nobody gets hurt." The ending, when it arrived, was exactly what I was by then hoping it would be. It left me with a big grin that took hours to wear off.Don't go into this expecting a down under version of Ocean's 11. This is much more like The Ice Harvest, or Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead -- a sort of existentialist film noir fable. And a pure delight, provided you're in a receptive frame of mind.

My only reason for watching this is because I caught the tail end of it on cable and saw the ending before I saw the re-run of the film starring GUY PEARCE, an actor whom I liked in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and MEMENTO. It's no more than an average crime caper movie but watchable enough to pass the time.It's one of those hard to define flicks about a trio of hoodlums (brothers, actually) who are exploited by a crooked lawyer and, in the end, decide to take revenge. That's the basic plot in a nutshell, with some equally corrupt cops thrown into the mix. But first time Aussie director Scott Roberts has taken some very far out material with lots of quirky potential and turned it into a fairly interesting heist film that moves swiftly toward a most unlikely ending. Along the way there are a lot of twists and turns--watch especially for the crucial scene where Pearce decides to take care of the corrupt lawyer all by himself until the unexpected happens.RACHEL GRIFFITHS is effectively cunning as Pearce's blonde and trashy wife, and JOEL EDGERTON has fun with his role as the wildest brother who is most brazen about his prison behavior with a counselor. A guy by the name of ROBERT TAYLOR is apparently unaware of his moniker's use by an already famous classic star.With a serious/comic flavor, it starts out promisingly but turns into an average thriller aided and abetted by an upbeat musical score.Warning: Lots of profanity, sexual doings and coarse lingo make it unacceptable for the kiddies. A major flaw are the heavy Australian accents which blur much of the dialog.

With lots of holiday time on my hands, decided to tape this and watch later. Didn't particularly want to see it, but figured it was worth a chance.The story is about 3 bank-robbing brothers, caught up in a mess with a bunch of crooked cops. They basically keep spending time between robbing banks and prison. When a huge heist opportunity comes their way, revolving around the Melbourne Cup, they see their chance to get out for good with a nice lump sum of cash money.The cast is solid, featuring Guy Pearce (Mike from "Neighbours"), Joel Edgerton and Rachel Griffiths, the storyline is OK, but the story just bugged me. The language is pretty rough, there's some odd sexual content and the movie really starts to drag. A lot more effort should have gone into the heist scenes than some of the stuff they dabbled in (eg relationships, mental health, salmonella) with no depth, making it pointless.Had potential, but went nowhere.

"The Hard Word", just another B-flick about a bunch of people after a bunch of money, sticks Pearce front and center with a beard and perpetual sneer as a bad/good guy with Griffiths looking equally out of her element as his blond bimbo in a padded bra. Everything about this convoluted flick is ordinary, uninspired, and just so much of the same old stuff we've all seen soooooo many times before. "The Hard Word" does not distinguish itself in any way and is probably destined to die a slow death on late night Aussie tv. A step backward for Pearce and Griffiths. Not recommendable. (C)