Truly Dreadful Film

Touches You

Redundant and unnecessary.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The story and script are highly entertaining. The film examines the issue of asylum seekers in a non-confronting way, simply looking at it through the frame of immediate survival for the three "buddies". The acting throughout is also very convincing, and I will even give 3 out of 10 stars to South Australia for its portrayal of the Kimberley. There were some shots when the two stranded fishermen were walking along a beach under some red cliffs which could almost have passed for Cape Vilaret near Broome, but the "inland" shots mostly looked wrong in terms of vegetation and soil. It is sad that when the landscape is such a crucial character in a film, and when authenticity has been well-served in casting the humans, a similarly authentic approach could not also have been applied to that landscape.

I am not voting 10 for the film because I was a cast member and had a role in the film, but because of how it blew me off whilst watching it at the premiere last week. I have done a fair few gigs and this one is by far the best of the best. I have never voted for work I have been a part of before, but this one is really a cracker of a picture and a very well told story. Michael's directions is wonderful and the narrative is held extremely well with the superb performances by the lead actors. I can't be reviewing the film, as it might sound one sided, however I am voting 10 because that is my genuine feeling towards the film. I have it as a top 5 Aussie films of all time. If I see it again, I will probably notice other positives/ flaws in the film and I will happily report them. OSAMAH

The scenario is simple. A disparate group of refugees are dumped on the inhospitable West Australian coast by unscrupulous people smugglers. It may sound like the perfect recipe for a tale of woe and misery, but instead Lucky Miles is a comedy, and easily the most enjoyable Australian film I've seen for quite a few years. And the audience at the Sydney Film Festival certainly found plenty to laugh at. Writer Helen Barnes and writer/director Michael James Rowland, aided by a wonderful ensemble cast, have created a marvelous set of characters. They could have given us mere symbols of suffering and injustice, or ethnic stereotypes, but instead each character is gloriously human. The Iraqi and Cambodian refugees, the Indonesian people smugglers, and the Australian reservists tasked with rounding them up, all have laughable foibles. And it is the presentation of this common humanity that makes this film not only very funny, but also a powerful exploration of one of the most pressing issues of our time.

This film is a major leap forward from recent Aussie films, thankfully getting away from drug-raddled Western suburbs teenagers and quirky comedy clowns. The film-makers are willing to take on a big subject, a major global theme, that of displaced people and the extraordinary acts of quiet courage that so-called "boat people" are often required to perform simply to survive. It is very well directed, skillfully guiding an almost entirely unknown and inexperienced cast by not relying on too many long, challenging acting scenes but flick-passing from one story to the next in a way where the limited acting skills of the cast are best served. This is not a perfect film, it is too long at some points, and once in a while commits the cardinal sin of letting the audience get ahead of the film in knowing full well what will happen next. Another careful and unemotional edit, trimming eight to ten minutes of splashing in billabongs, tinkering with utes and trudging through scrub could only help. But these are minor quibbles in a film that achieves so much, that aims high and gets there. This and "Clubland" are without doubt the best two films so far in2007.