As fi lmgoers, do you When, I wondered, was the last Australian fi lm enough premise and a suffi ciently confi dent sometimes wonder if comedy that seemed genuinely funny, as if sense of the comic spirit to sustain audience inspired by a viable narrative agenda and with involvement in a feature-length comedy? the phrase ‘Australian a screenplay that could articulate this—and comedy’ is an oxymoron? keep up the work until the very end? It’s near- Writing about ‘Comedy’ in The Oxford Certainly, as I watched ly twenty years since Crocodile Dundee (Peter Companion to Australian Film (1999), Felicity Faiman,1986) became the highest-grossing Collins claimed that, after the international in a concentrated burst Australian fi lm ever, milking every stereotype successes of the early 1990s (Ballroom, Mu- over a couple of weeks a of the superiority of bush innocence over riel, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the half-dozen fi lms from the urban sophistication for all it was worth. Then Desert [Stephan Elliot, 1994]) ‘Australian cine- there were admittedly very funny sequences ma has become synonymous with comedy’.1 last fi ve years, it did quite in, and aspects of, Strictly Ballroom (Baz She was able then to argue a case for such often seem to me that Luhrmann,1992) and Muriel’s Wedding (P.J. a view that would be hard to mount now. the phrase was yoking Hogan, 1994), but their real distinction lay Some of the same thematic preoccupations together two concepts elsewhere. Was The Castle (Rob Sicth, 1997) underlie the fi lms I am concerned with here: the last Australian fi lm that had a strong there are still ‘little guys’ taking on corpora- with little common ground. tions or other corrupt power bases; country Then, very recently towns and suburban life are still being of- I caught up with the fered as ideological alternatives to a range of ‘others’; Australian pragmatism is still seen telemovie, Stiff (John as preferable to—oh, almost anything. The Clarke, 2004), and my unequivocal espousing of the bush ethos of spirits rose again. But we’ll an earlier period may no longer be a serious come back to that. proposition, but in the fi lms I am concerned with there doesn’t seem a very sure grasp of either generic conventions or of the social mores that underpin them.

BRIAN MCFARLANE Mention of Crocodile Dundee above reminds

34 • Metro Magazine No. 142 me that it was seeing Paul Hogan’s new- It may be argued that the fi lm is too good- est comedy, Strange Bedfellows (Dean natured to deserve a mauling. My worry is Murphy, 2004), that set this piece in train. not whether it’s good-natured but that it is Seeing it in a large cinema in which the thick-headed. Its denouement is basically only other occupants was a group of three stupid: just ponder for a moment what is was possibly not ideal, but I felt no regret likely to be the post-credits development not to be part of a large audience enjoy- of its narrative. (And don’t tell me that ing itself. Almost nothing about it seemed this is just a fi ction and that what might funny enough to make one want to be in have happened after ‘THE END’ is no a large company. By now everyone must concern of mine.) Further, its picture of a be familiar with the plot concerning two Victorian country town is patronizing and guys in a country town, Yackandandah, mothballed: if a fi lmmaker wants to play who pretend to be gay to take advantage with a contemporary issue like the formal of new tax breaks for same-sex couples. status of same-sex couples, it doesn’t Vince (Hogan) is divorced and his ex- seem consistent to set the tale in a com- wife is taking him to the cleaners; Ralph munity that looks and acts and sounds as (Michael Caton) agrees to help out on the if it exists in a 1950s time-warp. To have understanding that no one will ever fi nd noticed that sexual mores have made out. Well, of course, everyone does. There signifi cant progress but not to have a clue have been much fl imsier narrative hooks about whether the same might be said for for successful comedies than this, but di- country towns looks like carelessness—or rector/co-screenwriter Dean Murphy never condescension. In the context of the fi lm, begins to make anything of it. the (beautiful-looking) town of Yackan- dandah never rings true for an instant as The fi lm probably thinks it is being ever so a player in the fi lm’s plot. There is often a liberal with its approach to the ‘gay’ couple patronizing sense of superiority in Austral- and the whole town is misty-eyed when ian fi lmmakers’ representation of country Ralph at the local fi remen’s ball makes towns, as though their occupants can a ‘moving’ speech about how he ‘loves’ have learnt nothing in the last fi fty years. his mate Vince, thus providing cultural theoreticians with more material for their As for Hogan, whose celebrity might have theses about the homoerotic elements of been supposed to save the day, even to mateship. Before this deeply embarrass- provide the fi lm’s raison d’être, he looks ing fi nal scene is reached (motivated by a aged and tired, to have lost the charm and need to persuade the visiting tax asses- larrikin humour that once enabled fi lm- sor, inexplicably played by British Pete makers to build a comedy around him. Postlethwaite2), the fi lm has fl irted with all Caton out-acts him at every turn, but then manner of gay clichés and had all the polit- he is essentially a character actor: we ex- ically incorrect fun it could wish for, hoping pect him to act, not just to trade on a per- to restore the moral balance with this cli- sona. And here is one of the great truths mactic (absurd and sentimental) scene at I’ve arrived at while watching these fi lms: the ball. We have, for instance, watched as the strength of Australian comedy fi lms is they are instructed by the local hairdresser, to be found in the range and depth of their a closet straight who pretends to be a character playing. If these fi lms are better swishy gay because it’s what’s expected of acted than they deserve, it is probably be- him. Oh yes? In 2004? In Yackandandah? cause their thin narratives are bolstered by And there’s a funny Australian place-name the presence of people like Alan Cassell, for you, isn’t it. Appalled—I hope—one Stewart Faichney, Roy Billing and Monica watches as Vince and Ralph practice limp Maugham (all in Strange Bedfellows), who gestures and hip-swivelling walks in the anchor them in a sort of reality that would direst, unfunniest of outdated sexual stere- otherwise elude them completely. otypes. And the fact that the hairdresser is really a rampant lothario doesn’t take the If country towns often stand in for simple- pressure off this caricature humour we’re minded stasis in the wake of modern life, expected to fi nd hilarious. the same is also often true of suburbia. This is not a key matter in Darren Ash- LEFT FROM TOP: THE HONOURABLE ton’s Thunderstruck (2004) but the point WALLY NORMAN; THE NIGHT WE CALLED is made. The fi lm begins at the AC/DC IT A DAY ABOVE FROM TOP: THE CASTLE; CRACKERJACK; STRANGE BEDFELLOWS; STRICTLY BALLROOM; THUNDERSTRUCK

Metro Magazine No. 142 • 35 concert in Sydney in 1991, after which five ing.’3 Epstein also draws attention to the ticipating their nicely abrasive partnership young guys talk about dying young, have caricaturing of some of the characters in in Bad Eggs (Tony Martin, 2003), discussed a near-death experience, and make a pact the interests of a critique of their conserv- in these pages recently.4 to ensure that, when the first dies, the ative values, while underlying the club’s other four will ensure his burial next to AC/ ‘essential benignity’. In Paul Moloney’s The structural motif of the little guys up DC’s former lead singer, Bon Scott. One of 2002 comedy Crackerjack, the bowling against the corporate and/or political bul- them, Ronnie (Sam Worthington), is killed club is again depicted conservatively but lies and shysters evokes not merely the by a flash of lightning (how else?) and essentially to secure our sympathetic in- Ealing template of, say, Passport to Pimlico the rest of this often entertaining movie is volvement with it in the face of attempts at (Henry Cornelius, 1949) or The Maggie taken up with the survivors’ efforts to carry being taken over by Bernie Fowler (John (Alexander Mackendrick, 1953) but also the out the terms of the pact. Before this, Clarke), who is urging the club to accept Frank Capra-style fable of Mr Smith Goes though, they are found practicing inside a business offer to install pokies that will to Washington (1939). Australia’s most suc- the very suburban home of one of them, bring it ‘a fortune’. cessful foray into this sort of morally purpo- Sonny (Damon Gameau). The film flashes sive comedy is Rob Sitch’s The Castle, the forward to twelve years later, and Sonny While the club is, in old-time Ealing style, most recent being The Honourable Wally is still loafing about the house where his resisting these overtures, it is also coming Norman (Ted Emery, 2003). Given that it is mother routinely admonishes ‘Don’t swear to terms with larrikin Jack Simpson (Mick directed by Ted Emery who made such a at your father’, and father is, of course, to Molloy), who’s been a nominal member for hit of three seasons of Kath & Kim, it ought be seen lovingly cleaning the family car, as years and is conducting a minor scam with to have been much funnier and much signs of how out of it they are. the parking rights that come with member- more lethal than it is. The little guy here is ship. Naturally, Jack will come to see the Wally (engagingly played by Kevin Har- Again, the narrative starting-point is quite sturdy values of the club and Fowler will be rington) who is out of a job when the local promising, but when the film turns into a routed, but such predictability needn’t have meatpacking plant is shut down. By dint sort of road movie, as the surviving four sunk the film. What does for it is the slack- of a misplaced vowel, Wally, rather than make the cross-continent journey to Perth ness of the writing: one watches actors like disgraced politician Willy Norman, finds with the Scott grave as their goal, it loses Bill Hunter, Frank Wilson, Monica Maugham his name on the electoral ballot paper as its sharpness and becomes no more than again, and Lois Ramsay standing round prospective local member for Givens Head, a series of more and less amusing en- with nothing worth doing. Early on, the and is propelled into the limelight, despite counters. It is at its best in the sequences ladies’ president (Maugham, with careful his incapacity as a speechmaker. How- in which Sonny rounds up the other sur- hair), when told that one of the members is ever, in the manner of American populist vivors, especially those involving Ben (the in hospital, promises: ‘I’ll have a whip-round comedy, Wally routs the corrupt Willy (Alan excellent Stephen Curry from The Castle), and we’ll organize a fruit-platter.’ The tone Cassell) and the suavely slimy Oats (Shaun now moving up the supermarket hierarchy of the sentence and its delivery are spot on, Micallef). There are some good swipes at and seen separating milk cartons accord- but the dialogue is mostly either flatly char- officialdom, at political morality (as in both ing to their fat content. Or in the moments acterless or scoring simple-minded points Oats’ and Willy’s attempts to pass them- in which aspiring singer Molly, Ronnie’s about the mundane pettiness of the club’s selves off as family men), and media inanity girlfriend, insists on having half his ashes members, as when one accuses Jack of (as in the use of The G’day Show, presided and insists also that she’s not joking: ‘I’m ‘helping yourself to a slice of the compli- over by Bryan Dawe); and in its minor way a celebrity. I don’t joke.’ But once the mentary wheel of cheese’. the film makes a case for simplicity without film hits the road, ironically the pace flags too often lapsing into the merely simplistic. and the humour gets broader and more Crackerjack seems uncertain what to make The country folk are predictably salt-of- scattergun in its attacks, and the final talk of bowls and bowlers: are they mainly up the-earth in their rejection of the city-slicker about ‘mateship and honour’ seems a for jokes or do they stand for a sort of inno- mentality, but this kind of clear binaristic hollow conclusion to a film that, early on, cence? The film doesn’t actually patronize approach hasn’t stopped better films from seemed to have its wits about it. the club and its members; it is mildly good- being better. Like too many Australian com- natured in its satire; but it is slack where it edies, The Honourable Wally Norman lacks Few images are more evocative of either should be tight and broad where it should narrative ambition: it is content to coast country towns or respectable subur- be sharp. (And the recent British ‘bowls’ along scoring laughs of varying degrees of bia—or an easier target for satirists—than film, Blackball [Mel Smith, 2003], much conviction as it goes. the bowling green and its attendant club harsher than Crackerjack in tone, is no bet- quarters. There’s no reason why the ter for being so; it swipes wildly at satirical In The Night We Called It a Day (Paul institution couldn’t be made to work as a targets and is finally an incoherent mess.) Goldman, 2003), Australia itself has be- focus for a comic exploration of the clash It’s as though the club is too easy a target come the little guy in the face of US star between its sedate behaviours and the for simple jokes and the outsiders are too celebrity, as it quite wittily chronicles the loutish and/or grasping outsiders who crudely drawn. Mick Molloy, a very gifted events surrounding Frank Sinatra’s 1974 don’t understand the bowlers’ guiding comedian, needs, as the film’s co-screen- tour of Australia, when he fell foul of the principles, on or off the green. I never saw writer, to take some of the blame for this, press and the unions imposed a ban on David Caesar’s 1993 comedy, Greenkeep- but it must be said that he gets some nicely him and his entourage. Here the little guy ing, but it is described by Jan Epstein as tart scenes with Judith Lucy as a journalist is local concert promoter Rod Blue (Joel ‘slight’ but ‘genuinely oddball and appeal- finally responsible for undoing Fowler, an- Egerton) who pulls off the coup of getting

36 • Metro Magazine No. 142 Sinatra (a neat impersonation by Dennis There’s some playing with the inevitable and droll remarks), and with a sardonic of- Hopper) to Australia, begins to look as pattern of romantic comedy: its end is, fice secretary written and played by people if he’s very much out of his league, and after all, fore-ordained: however, to make who clearly remember Lee Patrick and Eve then has his fairytale moment at the end, Jackman’s hero a closet romance fic- Arden. The plot is a deliberately shambling when the film decides to soften its image tion-writer and to give Karvan’s Ruby the succession of incidents in which Whelan’s of Sinatra. Is there an Australian comedy independence of a masculine-seeming private life complicates his life as (amateur) that doesn’t go sentimental at fade-out? occupation provide some twists on the way private eye, and the over-all effect is of a Is this, perhaps, just a characteristic of the to the fade-out reunion with soaring musical tonally assured piece of work that gives genre? Maybe, but in the best comedies score and skywriting love message. But, Australian comedy a good name for once. we’re surely made to feel that the upbeat like all the comedies discussed here, there’s ending has been earned in the narrative, in something half-baked about it. Are the The film’s great strengths are in the writing what has happened to the characters. All scripts really in best possible nick before (and that’s rare in Australian film comedy) right, perhaps I am being captious here, filming starts? Is there still something half- and in Wenham’s superbly comic per- expecting a Swiftian ferocity in the satire’s hearted about the way Australian films take formance, with its immaculate timing and bite when all that is intended is some on board genre conventions, failing to work unobtrusive but complex sense of charac- well-placed nibbles. The best of these is them hard for the twin rewards of gratify- ter. As Debi Enker wrote of Whelan: ‘… his David Field’s wonderfully malicious turn ing and subverting expectation? Comedy scruffy state regularly causes the unwary to as Bob Hawke in his days as heroic union would, on the face of it, appear to be one under-estimate him. For Murray can be a leader in a terrible 1970s suit, succumbing sure way of negotiating the currents of the keen reader of people. He’s resilient and not to liquor and the charms of Barbara Marx mainstream, as distinct from the one-off easily deterred.’6 Wenham may just be Aus- (Melanie Griffith), then going to sleep at pleasures of the art-house, exemplified by tralia’s best film actor at the moment; he is the final concert. Field’s work is so good a film like Lantana (Ray Lawrence, 2001). certainly its funniest, and the comedy grows it’s a wonder it hasn’t led to litigation. Going back to the early days of the 1970s effortlessly (it seems) from both disciplined film revival here, though, there has always technique and a sure grasp of the complex- If the populist element has accounted for been a sense that comedy wasn’t important ities of this shambling, decent man. most of the Australian comedies of the last enough, that Australia’s would never be a few years, the sub-genre of romantic com- respectable, grown-up cinema if it didn’t What a pity its life-history will be one night edy has hardly been in evidence at all. It’s take on more obviously serious challenges. on the telly then consignment to DVD, when five years since Paperback Hero (Anthony I say ‘obviously’ because the best comedy it might so easily have had a serious career J. Bowman, 1999) was released: has there has always been serious at heart. in the cinema. It doesn’t even look like a been a successor? There have been a few telemovie, and that’s more than you can say British and American successes in this For my money, the most successful for some of the actual movies mentioned field in recent years, notably this year with Australian film comedy of recent years above. Producers with larger budgets Something’s Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, was made for television. I mean direc- should keep in mind that the best comedy 2003), but the days when romantic comedy tor-screenwriter John Clarke’s version of tends to be the best-written: give the sort of was a Hollywood staple are long past. It’s the Shane Maloney comedy thriller, Stiff, actors I’ve been talking about a nifty script surprising, really, given the success of the screened by Channel 7 in June this year. and they will surely take it from there. scattered titles of the last decade, including Clarke has claimed that Maloney writes Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993), ‘crime fiction by stealth’.5 Of course there’s Brian McFarlane’s Encyclopedia of British Film Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, a murder and a (sort of) investigation, but (2003) has been reprinted. He is now prepar- 1994), Notting Hill (Roger Michell, 1999) and it’s the over-all comic tone that gives the ing the 2nd edition for 2005 publication. • Shakespeare in Love (John Madden, 1999); film its real charm. It knows where it is the genre as a genre seems firmly rooted going: it has a devious private-eye-type Endnotes in the studio days. Paperback Hero mixes plot, set moving when a body is found in 1 The Oxford Companion to Australian some reliable ingredients: an attractive pair the freezer at a Melbourne meat-works Film, OUP, Melbourne,1999, p.74. who haven’t realized they are meant for (hanging between ‘the export beef and 2 I know it’s not really inexplicable and each other, played with apt star charisma the spring lamb’); it has a cast of colour- that this fine actor was appearing on by Hugh Jackman and Claudia Karvan; her ful characters; a strong sense of place; stage here. But could his name really nice but not too exciting fiancé (Andrew and a script as witty as one would expect be expected significantly to enhance S. Gilbert in the Ralph Bellamy part) and a from Clarke. David Wenham plays Murray the film’s prospects overseas? smart city woman (Angie Milliken), of the Whelan—secretary to a local parliamen- 3 Jan Epstein, ‘Greenkeeping’, in Scott kind immemorially not meant to nab the tary member (an endlessly profane and Murray (ed.) Australian Film, 1978- hero, even if, in these advanced days, she very funny Mick Molloy)—who bumbles 1994, OUP, Melbourne, p.358. does bed him. The nub of the plot is that and mumbles his way through to unravel- 4 See Brian McFarlane, ‘Good Deeds and truck-driver Jackman has written a romantic ling the crime. He finds himself in his car Good Clean Fun: Some Recent Austral- best-seller using crop-duster mate Karvan’s upside down in the river one wet night, ian Caper Movies’, Metro, No. 140. name, and director Anthony J Bowman’s when it so happens his roof is about to 5 Quoted by Debi Enker in ‘Free Whe- screenplay works this for some reasonably fall off; he parries with an estranged wife lan’, Green Guide, The Age, 17 June, entertaining complications. fighting feminist causes in Canberra (the 2004, p.19. subject of some politically very incorrect 6 Enker, ibid., p.18.

Metro Magazine No. 142 • 37