The Second

Great performances from top shelf actors The story grabs you and has unexpected surprises Beautifully shot, great art department and a stunning sound track Queensland film makers doing it their way on the Western Downs - real good. First time director - fabulous job Do yourself a favor and see it Very Distinctive

You don't often see something of this quality, great scenery, acting and a twisty, almost implausible plot combined to perfection.

A well crafted and well scripted, character driven 3 piece, that does away with the well worn Aussie stereotypes, to create a drama/thriller with tension, intrigue and sexual tension, that keeps the audience guessing until it's final resolution, with great performances - including a standout from Rachael Blake. The film is also wonderful to look at, with location and landscape well supported by beautiful production and costume design and cinematography with a moody European sensibility. An impressive work from director Mairi Cameron.

Rachael Blake plays a novelist who's extremely pleased with herself and makes a point of being either sour or enigmatic or both simultaneously. She and her publisher (Vince Colossimo) visit her country mansion so she can write her second novel without distractions. He seems extremely dim - for a publisher. But that's handy because all she seems to want from him is sex, or to be able to humiliate him. Nothing much happens for the first half hour. Except we meet the standard menacing local bloke in a flannelette shirt, and there are flashes of past somethings - very brief, too brief to stimulate much anticipation. Then the novelist's fun-loving besty (Susie Porter) turns up, and larger hints are made about the dark secret of their past, but not much happens that you don't expect will happen. A triangle develops, the dark secret is gradually revealed, but are the "shocking" scenes we see part of the novel being written, or are they really happening? I didn't care. This is one of those 20 minute stories that are chopped up into 90 minute jigsaw puzzles in the hope that you won't notice that not much is going on. As far as interesting characters or story are concerned, "The Second" woefully neglects its audience.

Do you actually read scripts? A filmmaker finds an amazing house in outback Queensland, and writes a script to fit the house? Even with no available water, the pool is empty, but hey, best add a pool scene? And who left the various wine glasses on the tables in the hall? The crew? The Second is an example why the funding bodies have few hits and lots of misses. A weak, no a pathetic script which four reasonable Australian actors did their best. Maybe ad lib might have been better. Go for it you guys.