User reviews

Miranda Tapsell leads us on a merry dance through all of the Northern Territory's most famous and scenic sights, from Nitmilik Gorge to Kakadu to the Tiwi Islands. There are credits to the Northern Territory Tourist Bureau, and they more than got their money's worth.

The story line is a bit predictable, but it is told with enthusiastic good nature and has a couple of less obvious twists that overall it hung together well enough that I didn't mind. It is the Miranda show and she inhabits the character so easily I wonder whether aspects of it might be slightly autobiographical. Gwilym Lee as fiancé Ned is a pleasant, slightly uncomfortable fish out of water in what to him must be such a strange environment. The extras, Aboriginal people in various places and particularly on the Tiwi Islands, give it a goodly dollop of authenticity and provides a reflective backdrop for many of the story's aspects.

In some ways, it's a bit like a visual equivalent of a musical - a not terribly plausible or important story that ties together not songs but images and impressions of Australia's Top End and the people that live there. If you've never been, this might just inspire you to go.

'Top End Wedding' is from the director of 'The Sapphires' and also stars Tapsell, this time as Lauren, an up-&-coming lawyer from Adelaide. She gets engaged to Ned (Lee), which sets in motion a whirlwind trip to Darwin to try and pull together a wedding in 10 days before she's required back at work, thanks to her demanding boss Ms Hampton (Fox).

Back in Darwin, we meet Lauren's Dad, Trevor (Higginson) and the twist that her Mum, Daphne (Yovich), has left to find her roots. This "mystery" forces Lauren and Ned on a roadtrip to find her, and allows us to see the spectacular scenery in Kakadu and Katherine, as well as eventually, the Tiwi Islands. There's plenty of funny moments along the way and interesting characters.

As well as the great settings, there's also some emotional reunions for Lauren and Daphne with their people and country on the Tiwi Islands - it's all handled really well and is very touching. It's fantastic to see Aboriginal actors and Australian settings on film - I wish there was more. Overall, a lovely film in terms of story, music, characters and settings.

This isn't a terrible romantic comedy. I am certainly not the target demographic, and though I've given this film a 2.5/5 star rating, I think it's a film that people like my mom would like. There are movies out there that work much better for some people than they do for others, and the schmaltzy, cheesy romance stuff doesn't always work for me unless the characters are ones that I actually care about. In this film, I thought the characters were likeable, but I didn't care about them. The humor also felt a touch one note. The dad crying in the closet was a gag that was used repeatedly; at first it grew funnier with every time, but then the gag kept getting used, and it went beyond the realm of funny and into the realm of annoying. By the fifth or sixth time the gag was used, I wondered how many more times I would have to hear that bloody song before the credits rolled.

Why does this earn a special space in my heart? It is a romantic comedy after all, deliberately designed to be discarded. The genre is defined by the attractiveness of a superficial love; the easy way problems are resolved and the balance of designed soulmates restored.

This film follows the mandated pattern: love, some misunderstanding of clumsiness that separates the lovers, a public pronouncement of love with cheering bystanders, happy ending - often a wedding and dancing. You have to have some strong comedic, but identifiably human characters. This serves that pattern well.

But it also has a few important differences. The first is the in your face charm of the land. I am immigrating to Australia so this grabs me deeper than it will you, dear reader. But it will likely grab you too, because the rom-com device here is place-as-heart. That is usually impossible to convey cinematically: vistas are containers, situations within which you place the characters and their emotions. Even Takashi Miike's 'The Bird People in China' or the obverse film, Zhang Yimou's obverse 'Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles' can only use place as space, and then only to annotate, even when they use the mystery of place and people.

Here you have a device no other place has: the people and the place share an identity. I don't know how well this would be conveyed to someone who knows nothing of the Aborigines, but the movie completely captures the notion by bringing souls to a physical place in the context of life commitment. The driver of 'place' as an agent is largely implied, making it so much stronger.

But there's also a more intriguing notion of love than usual. As with the standard rom-com model, it is the man that is the lead and the woman that acquiesces or not. But here the guy has some novel metaphors. Here he is already committed beyond the happy closeness of an early relationship and he explains why: his life is a room half filled with boxes that mean ('contain') little and he wants the rest to be full of flowers and jewels. This is after the metaphor is set up by someone in the parallel romance. And it becomes a complaint in the big breakup scene.

But the metaphor is strange enough that it steps out of the rom-com genre far enough to register as human; love for someone coming as much from the pull of attraction (and this woman is attractive) as from the innate need for companionship.

Wow, what a great Australian movie, beautiful cinematography of Australia's landscape showing the beauty of the Northern Territory. The film was heartwarming and also very funny with a great message and likeable characters.

Overall, a very enjoyable Australian romantic comedy and a must watch, it was very enjoyable and is destined to become an Instant Australian classic, aswell as boosting tourism for Australia and the Northern Territory

The story may be cliche but the cultural setting is, thanks to the indifference of dominant white culture in Australia, new. It's also lovingly authentic; Tiwi culture is lovingly embraced and explored. Plus I love that the Tiwi Sistagirls had a role in this film!

Honestly the two lead actors were great and have so much charisma. I love them and the female lead is just gorgeous and good at her craft. She also co-wrote the screenplay. The humour and some key lines of dialogue are worth watching for alone. My expectations are high as It starts out at a cracking pace but unfortunately it starts to slow up at the mid point. The problem is a failure to identify the a key protagonist (the mum) so we loose track. This film would have worked better if we had alternating story lines and a multiple protagonist set up. The problem with films is that we need to be able to connect to the key characters who we are supposed to empathise with very early in the film and we don't have that connection with the mum so in the end the sentiment feels contrived.

The story is about a young woman who is partly indigenous (if there is such a thing) and she is about to marry her man from a European background. A clever use of the symbolism just in this point alone. Anyway she wants to get married in the Darwin, NT where her parents live. Unfortunately her indigenous mum has left her father and gone walkabout to find herself and this is the entire plot of the film.

We can't feel the empathy that we need to feel towards mum because she was introduced too late in the film and by the time she is introduced it just makes the ending look superficial. Anyway her mum wants to belong to her place of birth and reconnect with her family. This is a powerful storyline but it is way underplayed. As I said I wished we could have been invested in this from the beginning of the film. It is such a valid value to pursue but not pulled off totally in this instance and by the end of the film we feel like we are going through the motions of what a "good film should be."

Still there are so many beautiful aspects to this film. with great performances and is well shot and edited. I still felt affection for mum (and all the characters) but I wanted to know her better and for this reason the story isn't as powerful as it could be. I feel that the writers missed the opportunity to say something stronger. Still congrats. What an effort. Hope to see more of this type of work and the hint of the brilliance to come from these writers.

10 points for being female-written, having a largely Indigenous cast, and showcasing some beautiful parts of Australia. Unfortunately I felt the story was a bit disjointed and some of the jokes fell flat. It was an enjoyable enough movie to see on Mother's Day and Miranda Tapsell is an absolute star, but this one didn't do it for me.

This movie put a smile on my face. The characters are just the greatest bunch of lovable people (and a dog) brought together in a movie. The story, despite some familiar scenarios, was fresh and interesting. Some beautiful cinematography of the Katherine gorge and Tiwi Islands and elsewhere up north added some more interest to the movie and should have people adding the north to their "bucket lists". Some truly funny scenes. I thought Kerry Fox was particularly funny in her role as Miranda Tapsell's lawyer boss, she seemed to be having the time of her life playing the part. It could have been pure caricature, but she gave it some depth. The camera just loves Miranda Tapsell and Ursula Yovich, who plays her mum, and the actors who played the bridesmaids were similarly gorgeous. Huw Higginson was good as the dad, and he managed to nail an aussie accent, which not many pull off. The movie reminded me of that REM/B52s song "shiny happy people". Yes, there is some pathos, but overall it was just shiny happy people in a beautiful shiny happy landscape (yes, I know you can get eaten by crocs and die of heatstroke, but in the movie it was all just gorgeous) and I came out of the film having a bit of the shiny happy rubbed off onto me. I agree with the other reviewer about the soundtrack. I also liked it a lot.

But would it ever end? The last half hour seemed like 2 hours. There are those who would enjoy the detail, but I was losing the will to live. Shame, as the rest was really enjoyable.

I didn't really expect much as I am not a great fan of rom-coms: this was so very predictable. It was, however, a good promotion for tourism in the NT.

Less than 20mins out of the theater and I had to sign up to imdb to rate this film 10/10! The first Australian screening just took place and I am so lucky to have seen it. It was heartfelt, funny, real, and lovely. Highly recommend it!

What a great opportunity to showcase Australia Aboriginal culture and actors. Unfortunately the storyline made it almost unwatchable. Great (if too short) performance by the mother Daphne, everyone else felt contrived and overdone.

Waste of time and money .. Wasn't even funny. Poor acting ..

This is one of the worst movies I have seen. It is appallingly bad. It is like a children's TV show. We heard that it showed off some beautiful scenery but it showed very little, and much of it was shot on unclear days. The script was just shocking, and much of the movie was cliché and predictable. It could easily have walked out many times, and it didn't improve.

I saw the premiere of this file at Sundance, and it's a great film. It follows a lot of the traditional Rom-Com formula, but does it very well-the right mix of funny & touching, but never getting sappy. It uses a "road trip" plot device, that allows for some spectacular cinematography of Austraila's Northern Territories and islands. The music in the film is outstanding! (I hope the soundtrack gets released...) A really fun, well-done movie, and if it gets picked up for distribution in the US I think will perform well here. This was easily one of my favorite films so far at Sundance this year!

Hey, Alan Rickman is nowhere to be seen...I guess it was a mistake? Spent the whole film waiting for him to appear...

Another example of the lack of ideas left for the movie world. This movie cured my insomnia. Where did they find these so called "actors"? I thought home and away acting was bad, this tops it.

Good stories/scripts are no longer in existence. They have simply ran out of ideas.

This film was even better than I'd hoped for, and I smiled through much of the movie - and left feeling great! A truly uplifting romcom showcasing some unique parts of Australia that I now really want to explore! Excellent soundtrack. Definitely go and see it!

An Australian movie - great! Set in the north - spectacular scenery - even better.

Opening scenes in Adelaide, where I spent my formative years - an added bonus.

I gave up after around 30 minutes when the couple meet the bride's dad.

Typical characters:

Chief female protagonist - strong, empowered, a woman of colour etc.

Chief male protagonist - nerd, wimpy Chief female protagonist's dad - loser

Gave up at this point.

Great writing, great scenery, honest representation of Australia, (talking to you, Mr Luhrmann). But the groom was unlikable, stupid, and a son-in-law... The jokes were so so, but the lead actress and the supporting cast saved the film. Worth a watch and worth your time.

Full of laughs and good music, Top End Wedding is a joy for all ages and romantics at heart. Miranda is the perfect female lead and co-writer of the film, her quriky, funny & heart felt performance is lovely to see. While Gwilym Lee as the love interest was the perfect casting choice they have great chemistry, he has perfect comedic time and is a damn good actor... Wowza.

The film is heartwarming, funny and the perfect movie to make you feel good with a message about family, finding who you are and love.

I love Miranda Tapsell so I was excited to see this movie. What a disappointment! It was so contrived with lousy acting and far fetched story it almost put me in bad mood. Such a shame as I love to support Australian movies but this was the most disappointing one ever. There is some nice scenery but not enough to rescue a shocker of a movie!

I really enjoyed this movie. A great talented cast, good storyline, good fun with touching moments. Great to see the 'top ' of Australia and the lovely people depicted in the story. I saw landscapes I have never seen before and now as a long term immigrant appreciate this country even more. Highly recommended.

Sorry to say but it is yet another mediocre Australian film, aimed at pleasing all but captivating to none. Some are saying "appealing cast" but I cannot say that. What it is is a list of cliche written characters played as such. Tiny fleeting snippets of "Iconic scenery" serve no purpose other than to illustrate the makers opinion that his audience will get bored with any lingering reflective takes.