Passable but lacking a certain something
23 March 2003
Jack is a trucker in the Australian outback who makes regular stops in the outback café where Ruby Vale hangs out. Ruby is engaged to Jack's best mate. Things get complicated when a publisher comes to the outback café to see the author and Jack has to explain that he has written a romantic novel and used to name to hide his identity. With the publisher none the wiser the two set out for the city together to promote his novel through her. However the time together puts Ruby's engagement under threat.

I watched this mostly because Hugh Jackman's new found status as a star brought it to my attention. The plot is quite good and has a reasonable amount of potential but the film doesn't really manage to do very much with it. It lacks a spark in the film as a whole to really get it going.

Jackman is part of the spark and has a certain amount of charisma but he isn't enough to bring the film to life. No – it needed something more. The concealment of the truth in the first half is quite good but the romance and more serious tone in the second half is a lot heavier and doesn't totally work. Karvan is quite feisty and does well but her and Jackman don't have the necessary type of chemistry – they hit it off as a knockabout pair but not in the romantic sense.

The film has a certain charm to it but it didn't really do anything for me other than pass the time. It's hard to define but it seemed lacking in some humour, some genuine romance and a relationship that I really wanted to get behind. Passable and has potential but lacking in a certain something.
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