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Cate Blanchett,
Cate Blanchett,
Hugo Weaving,
more...
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Rowan Woods,
Rowan Woods
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: First Look Pictures
: Drama, Foreign, Crime, Australia & New Zealand
: 114 min.
: English
: Spanish
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A former drug-addict in her early thirties attempts to put her shady past to rest while paving the way for a brighter future in director Rowan Woods' tale of love, trust, and redemption in modern-day Australia. Tracy Heart (Cate Blanchett) hasn't lived her 32 years so much as she has simply survived them. Ravaged by the drug-addiction and determined to redeem herself in the eyes of her overworked single-mother Janelle (Noni Hazelhurst), Tracy makes a personal vow to open her own business and turn her life around before it's too late and life has passed her by. Tracy's plan is complicated, however, when three men from her past reappear with their own plans for the future. In addition to the troubling re-appearance of her ex-boyfriend Jonny (Dustin Nguyen), her criminal-minded brother Ray (Martin Henderson) seems hell-bent on making a name for himself in the underworld, and the emotional demands of troubled family friend and ex-football star Lionel Dawson (Hugo Weaving) have left the emotionally vulnerable Tracy shaken and confused. When Tracy's modest dreams of a happy life catch the attention of feared criminal kingpin Bradley "The Jockey" Thompson (Sam Neill), she is forced to place her fragile trust in the hands of her skeptical mother and take one last trip into the past to confront her greatest fear.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
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| I'm ready rather be on heroin...
by MLaRue
July 31, 2006 - 10:01 PM PDT
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0 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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| Blah. Granted, this film is beatifully shot and visually compelling. However, the story itself leaves you strung out. Rowan Woods begins this film in the second act while the audience is left struggling find the motivation to give enough of a shit to infer what the first act was. Next thing you know, the movie ends. The only redeeming quality of this film was a steller performance from that asian guy from "21 Jump Street." |
| Friends and Family in a Changing Australia
by talltale
April 18, 2006 - 6:36 AM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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LITTLE FISH is a little-seen Australian/New Zealand film that offers some of that region's best performers--Blanchett/Hazlehurst/Porter on the femme side, Weaving/Neill/Henderson on the male--acting up a storm with a good script (Jacqueline Perske) and an interesting director (Rowan Woods) at the helm. The movie, as do so many urban-set films these days, gets at the multi-cultural change that is taking place around much of the westernized world, and the story--an attempt by an ex-prisoner/drug abuser to better her life--is told interestingly and well.
Everything here-- story, visuals, performances--come together nicely, pulling you in slowly until you end up caring deeply about (yet remaining angry at) most of the characters. Not unlike one's oft-times feelings for problematic friends and family. The "making of" feature on the DVD is one of the better I have encountered: It provides a fine sense of how this movie was made, as well as of the exceptional amount of thought and time put in by everyone (not always agreeing with each other) in order to obtain the rich sense of reality and character.
This is one of 2005's better films, and certainly one of its least seen and noted outside of its home region, where it won a raft of well-deserved awards. It also gives the gorgeous Vietnamese actor Dustin Nguyen ("21 Jump Street"!) one of his best roles to date. While its "take" on crime bosses, drugs, revenge and the like may seem off-kilter and certainly less aggressive than what we're used to, Soprano-style, here in the States, it strikes me as a lot more layered and believable. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 5.58)
24 Votes
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