Film review: 'Praise'
Leave it to the Australians to make a brazenly original, warts-and-all relationship picture.
In out-of-left-field, sexually frank "Praise" -- it could have been called "Last Tango in Brisbane" -- an unemployed, chain-smoking asthmatic (Peter Fenton) finds himself in an intense tryst with a nymphomaniac with severe eczema (Sacha Horler).
Amid all the wheezing and scratching, they could just be each other's salvation, or simply playing out an ill-fated fling.
While this Sundance Film Festival entry isn't quite able to sustain its quirkily provocative first hour, it should nevertheless find some select-site praise for first-time feature director John Curran and writer Andrew McGahan, who adapted the screenplay from his bestselling semi-autobiographical novel.
When we first meet aimless Gordon (Fenton), he's living in a bleak, fleabag rooming house and subsisting on beer, cigarettes and his trusty inhaler.
Enter earthy, mercurial Cynthia (Horler), a woman with a very healthy -- make that exhausting -- libido who initiates a liaison with hesitant Gordon, who's quite open about his feelings of sexual inadequacy.
Their robustly physical relationship soon turns into something more and Cynthia moves in with Gordon, who ultimately becomes conflicted when an old, unrequited crush (Marta Dusseldorp) reappears.
With an overall tone that can best be described as Henry Bukowski meets Franz Kafka, this tragicomic love story isn't exactly a romp. Still, there's an honest audacity to McGahan's script that translates into moments of comic inspiration, at least prior to Gordon and Cynthia's downward spiral.
Curran, meanwhile, directs with a fresh, jittery energy that serves the story well. Toward the end, however, he has problems making a clean escape. The film could have ended several different times.
He also manages to get terrific performances out of his fearless leads. As the terminally laconic Gordon, newcomer Fenton -- lead singer for the popular Aussie band Crow -- conveys a quiet naturalness that works for his submissive character; busy stage actress Horler, her face and body a mess of red, flaky blotches, plunges herself into the kind of starkly naked, anti-glamorous performance that would send most of her American counterparts running for cover.
Technical contributions, including Dion Beebe's no-fuss cinematography, Michael Philips' gritty production design and Alexandre de Franceschi's well-paced editing, are all "Praise"-worthy.
PRAISE
Southern Star Film Sales
An Emcee film
Director: John Curran
Producer: Martha Coleman
Screenwriter: Andrew McGahan
Director of photography: Dion Beebe
Production designer: Michael Philips
Editor: Alexandre de Francheschi
Costume designer: Emily Seresin
Music: Dirty Three
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gordon: Peter Fenton
Cynthia: Sacha Horler
Rachel: Marta Dusseldorp
Leo: Joel Edgerton
Molly: Yvette Duncan
Vass: Ray Bull
Raymond: Gregory Perkins
Cathy: Loene Carmen
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In out-of-left-field, sexually frank "Praise" -- it could have been called "Last Tango in Brisbane" -- an unemployed, chain-smoking asthmatic (Peter Fenton) finds himself in an intense tryst with a nymphomaniac with severe eczema (Sacha Horler).
Amid all the wheezing and scratching, they could just be each other's salvation, or simply playing out an ill-fated fling.
While this Sundance Film Festival entry isn't quite able to sustain its quirkily provocative first hour, it should nevertheless find some select-site praise for first-time feature director John Curran and writer Andrew McGahan, who adapted the screenplay from his bestselling semi-autobiographical novel.
When we first meet aimless Gordon (Fenton), he's living in a bleak, fleabag rooming house and subsisting on beer, cigarettes and his trusty inhaler.
Enter earthy, mercurial Cynthia (Horler), a woman with a very healthy -- make that exhausting -- libido who initiates a liaison with hesitant Gordon, who's quite open about his feelings of sexual inadequacy.
Their robustly physical relationship soon turns into something more and Cynthia moves in with Gordon, who ultimately becomes conflicted when an old, unrequited crush (Marta Dusseldorp) reappears.
With an overall tone that can best be described as Henry Bukowski meets Franz Kafka, this tragicomic love story isn't exactly a romp. Still, there's an honest audacity to McGahan's script that translates into moments of comic inspiration, at least prior to Gordon and Cynthia's downward spiral.
Curran, meanwhile, directs with a fresh, jittery energy that serves the story well. Toward the end, however, he has problems making a clean escape. The film could have ended several different times.
He also manages to get terrific performances out of his fearless leads. As the terminally laconic Gordon, newcomer Fenton -- lead singer for the popular Aussie band Crow -- conveys a quiet naturalness that works for his submissive character; busy stage actress Horler, her face and body a mess of red, flaky blotches, plunges herself into the kind of starkly naked, anti-glamorous performance that would send most of her American counterparts running for cover.
Technical contributions, including Dion Beebe's no-fuss cinematography, Michael Philips' gritty production design and Alexandre de Franceschi's well-paced editing, are all "Praise"-worthy.
PRAISE
Southern Star Film Sales
An Emcee film
Director: John Curran
Producer: Martha Coleman
Screenwriter: Andrew McGahan
Director of photography: Dion Beebe
Production designer: Michael Philips
Editor: Alexandre de Francheschi
Costume designer: Emily Seresin
Music: Dirty Three
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gordon: Peter Fenton
Cynthia: Sacha Horler
Rachel: Marta Dusseldorp
Leo: Joel Edgerton
Molly: Yvette Duncan
Vass: Ray Bull
Raymond: Gregory Perkins
Cathy: Loene Carmen
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/8/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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