Although the plot has been done before many times - stranger in a strange land - TOF handles it with charm and restraint.
Jack is a blow-in from Sydney to the close-knit oyster-farming region of the Hawkesbury River, just north of Sydney. He snares a job with rough diamond Brownie, who is smarting under the embarrassment of his estranged wife farming a lease next to his and doing much better at it. Brownie has a gabby old Irish father who beneath his verbosity is shrewd and wise to the nature of Jack's unsettled presence in the oyster farming community. Naturally, there's a pretty young thing Pearl strutting her stuff and Jack takes a shine to her and she to him. Just to complicate Jack's life, he has a financially-draining sister in tow who is apparently recovering from a serious car accident but who appears to be healthier than just about everyone else on the river. I don't think her part, or situation, is well written of delineated.
There are one or two pivotal events but nothing that manages to get out of hand or spoil the viewer's congeniality with the film. The Hawkesbury looks stunning and the actors look at home in its confines and do a good job with a script that is hardly demanding. Veteran Australian actor Jack Thompson plays Skippy, a Vietanam vet who lives in a camp on the river with fellow vets and who gives Jack the benefit of his reflections on life. Thompson is quite good, although I got the feeling his part was the eccentric that every writer is looking for to complete the full range of characters.
A nice, undemanding piece of entertainment. 7/10
Jack is a blow-in from Sydney to the close-knit oyster-farming region of the Hawkesbury River, just north of Sydney. He snares a job with rough diamond Brownie, who is smarting under the embarrassment of his estranged wife farming a lease next to his and doing much better at it. Brownie has a gabby old Irish father who beneath his verbosity is shrewd and wise to the nature of Jack's unsettled presence in the oyster farming community. Naturally, there's a pretty young thing Pearl strutting her stuff and Jack takes a shine to her and she to him. Just to complicate Jack's life, he has a financially-draining sister in tow who is apparently recovering from a serious car accident but who appears to be healthier than just about everyone else on the river. I don't think her part, or situation, is well written of delineated.
There are one or two pivotal events but nothing that manages to get out of hand or spoil the viewer's congeniality with the film. The Hawkesbury looks stunning and the actors look at home in its confines and do a good job with a script that is hardly demanding. Veteran Australian actor Jack Thompson plays Skippy, a Vietanam vet who lives in a camp on the river with fellow vets and who gives Jack the benefit of his reflections on life. Thompson is quite good, although I got the feeling his part was the eccentric that every writer is looking for to complete the full range of characters.
A nice, undemanding piece of entertainment. 7/10