Swinburne Research Bank http://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au Author: McFarlane, Brian Title: Too much of a TV dinner: Kath and Kimderella Year: 2013 Journal: Metro Magazine Issue: 175 Pages: 26-29 URL: http://www.metromagazine.com.au/magazine/issu es.asp Copyright: Copyright © 2013 Metro Magazine. This article was first published in Metro Magazine (http://www.metromagazine.com.au/). The published version is reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. This is the author’s version of the work, posted here with the permission of the publisher for your personal use. No further distribution is permitted. You may also be able to access the published version from your library. The definitive version is available at: http://www.metromagazine.com.au/magazine/iss ues.asp Swinburne University of Technology | CRICOS Provider 00111D | swinburne.edu.au Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Too Much of a TV Dinner Kath & Kimderella THE TELEVISION SERIES IS CRITICALLY ADMIRED AND HAS LEGIONS OF FANS, SO WHY DOES KATH & KIM’s TRANSLATION TO THE BIG SCREEN FALL SO FLAT? WATCHING THE FILM, BRIAN MCFARLANE EXAMINES SOME OF THE PROBLEMS THAT LAY WASTE TO SO MANY PROMISING TV-TO-CINEMA ADAPTATIONS. Has there ever been a seriously good Adaptation of one kind or another is a smartly written half-hour series can film derived from a television series? to me an endlessly provocative issue run satisfactorily on a single idea, I ask as one seeking information, not in filmmaking. There are plenty of ex- dressed out with shrewdly calculated having done the serious research that amples of novels, plays, short stories, observations of its milieu and the lives would enable me to give a definitive even poems being turned into interest- fleetingly glimpsed in it, the feature answer to this question. When I run ing films; there are even some ‘based- film, by inevitably having to stretch to my eye over the list compiled for that on-a-true-story’ jobs that don’t dis- about ninety minutes (if you’re lucky) utterly reliable organ of public informa- credit their sources, and instead use or two and a half hours (if you’re not), tion, Wikipedia, I am not at all inclined them as the basis for decent films. So is forced to go in for much more clot- to pursue the issue by submitting my- what is it about TV series that seems ted plotting. self to viewing the big-screen likes of so endemically to resist the process of The Beverly Hillbillies or On the Buses adaptation to the big screen? Perhaps A key example of recent years is just to be sure of my ground.1 it is to do with running time: whereas Sex and the City. A student of mine, 26 • Metro Magazine 175 | © ATOM correcting me on some wise pro- insights, and Kevin Macdonald’s 2009 What is it romances and nursing a long-term nouncement I’d made about the version of the riveting 2003 British se- about TV series crush on Shane Warne. changing roles and status of women ries State of Play didn’t lose too much that seems so in society, laid down a rebuking chal- in having its investigation of the links endemically In general, one of these aspirants and lenge with: ‘You should watch Sex and between politics and press relocated to resist the his or her latest goal will impel the the City.’ Well, I took up this gauntlet from London to Washington. But we all process of ‘plot’ of the episode. How often, for and found the half-hour programs know what exceptions can do to rules. adaptation to instance, are events set in motion by to be persistently sharp, perceptive the big screen? Kim’s entirely solipsistic view of the and witty. Nothing in them could have All this is by way of giving a pretty world? Even at Kath and Kel’s wed- prepared me for the awfulness of comprehensive thumbs down to Kath ding, she begins her speech by stating Michael Patrick King’s 145-minute film & Kimderella (2012), directed by Ted that she first needs to say something version (2008), with its overcrowded Emery, long-time director of the se- about herself. And so many episodes plot and undernourished screenplay, ries. The very considerable fun of the observe her egoism at play against which simply relied on our willingness series was mostly at the expense of Kath’s eagerly outgoing nature, which to spend a lot more time with the four everyday situations in which aspira- can catapult them into enough fun protagonists without needing to find tions of various kinds are made the and games for the ensuing half-hour. out anything new about them. Once material of satire. Think of Kath and There may be something patronising bitten, twice shy, I certainly avoided her courses (she has a diploma for her in the treatment of these women and the sequel (King again, 2010), in which success in ‘Recycling’) or her power their ineffectual but engaging men- the famous four took themselves walking with second husband Kel; or folk, but there is also affection for the away from their natural and formative daughter Kim, whose unassailable characters and their lower-middle- habitat, Manhattan, to Abu Dhabi. The ego urges her again and again to posit class lives as lived in the fictional result, I am reliably informed, was dire, herself as suburban princess-in-the- but I am no longer prepared to put it to making and to assert herself against the test of personal viewing. anything that might be construed as LEFT: KIM (GINA RILEY) AND KATH (JANE opposition (such as long-suffering TURNER) TOP ROW L-R: KIM WITH BRETT There must be exceptions to this husband Brett); or butcher Kel, who (PETER ROWSTHORN) AND EPPONNEE-RAE depressing rule: I seem to remem- designates himself a ‘purveyor of (MORGHYNE DE VRIES); KEL (GLENN ROBBINS); ALAIN (RICHARD E GRANT) BOTTOM ROW L-R: ber Sweeney! (David Wickes, 1977) fine meats’; or hopelessly overweight KATH AND KING JAVIER (ROB SITCH); ISABELLA managed the transfer with a reward- neighbour Sharon (Kim’s ‘second-best (JESSICA DE GOUW); TURNER AND RILEY AS PRUE ing share of tough action and tough friend’), hopelessly aspiring to various AND TRUDE. ALL PHOTOS BY JOHN TSIAVIS. © ATOM | Metro Magazine 175 • 27 suburb of Fountain Lakes. If there is The three-course episode: These touches relating to Molloy and a touch of patronage, or maybe just Starters Humphries seem to augur well for good- natured critique, in the treatment the film’s tone. In hindsight at least, of this outpost of suburbia, it carries Trying to keep an open mind about the it is with the plot-initiating move in over too to the snooty Prue and Trude new film’s possibilities in the face of which Kath wins an overseas trip to (not for nothing are they played by the the bleak history of adapting series, Papilloma, a small kingdom on the same actresses who incarnate Kath one is lulled in the opening minutes ‘heel of Italy’, that misgivings begin and Kim), who aspire to be more than into expecting some of the same sort to creep in. Moving this lot out of just posh-speaking shop assistants. of laughs. The film opens on a close- their native Fountain Lakes may well up of trainer-clad feet, which prove require some serious adjustments if Simply put, the series was very funny to belong to Kath as she goes about it’s not just to be a matter of innocents indeed, with Jane Turner and Gina her power-walking ritual. As she nears abroad. And for a while it looks as if Riley, as Kath/Prue and Kim/Trude her house, a red car pulls in. It has it might work. Kath takes Kim for the respectively, creating solidly realised the number plate ‘PRINCEZZ’, and trip because Kel doesn’t like flying, characters in a credibly realised set- out steps an overweight Kim with her and Kim has no compunction about ting, and most reliably supported by laundry, which she has come home leaving little daughter Epponnee-Rae Magda Szubanski (Sharon), Glenn to do. There are shots of Kath’s many (Morghyne de Vries) behind with Brett, Robbins (Kel) and Peter Rowsthorn certificates and diplomas, all lovingly the husband she wants to divorce. The (Brett). It’s a cliché to say that the US framed on the kitchen wall; there’s a airport departure scene has plenty of TOP ROW L-R: doesn’t do irony, but some UK series flashback to her first husband Gary good nasty fun, including the loading- KEL BATTLES KING have indeed lost their edge after an Poole (Mick Molloy) and his desertion JAVIER; KIM AND up of Sharon, who is tagging along Atlantic crossing (see Till Death Us Do of Kath; neighbour Sharon, almost ALAIN; BRETT AND with Kath and Kim, and glimpses of Part, which became All in the Family, spherical but talking excitedly about EPPONNEE-RAE Trude and Prue, who of course are or The Office). Similarly, reports sug- her diet, comes in to use the loo, from TRAVEL TO ITALY heading off with a much more extrava- gest that the US version of Kath & Kim which she emerges kilos lighter; as an BOTTOM ROW L-R: gant trip in mind. SHARON (MAGDA took itself too seriously and that the opening remark, Kim has announced SZUBANSKI); ROB mother–daughter relationship lacked to the marriage counsellor she and SITCH DONS A GREY The main course the comic verve of its Australian Brett are seeing, ‘I want a divorce’, MANE AS KING source.