I was excited to see this film, and although it was made with some degree if skill, it was a massive disappointment. The first problem is casting a 28 year old to play a high school student. As soon as you see her she is unbelievable in the role, and thus you can't connect at all. All through the film it was laughable that she was a student, so it was hard to take it seriously. With the amount of young and talented actors available, I am astonished by his terrible casting choice. She would have been fine playing a role more suitable, so it is not the actor's fault. The course language and harsh attitude simply don't work. I like scarface and other films that use excessive course language, but only if it WORKS! It doesn't here, because it doesn't seem natural. The dialogue is simply horrid, appalling, and all other words that mean TERRIBLE. The delivery is almost always unnatural and forced. It is well shot and well put together, with good music, but there is no real story and it takes ages for anything remotely interesting to happen. They probably thought the writing was clever on the page, and that's what it seems like. A good attempt that just didn't work. Melodrama like this really isn't very interesting. I couldn't even watch some of it because it was so boring. It's really annoying that films like this keep on getting made, which is crippling the Australian film industry and giving it a terrible reputation. I didn't end up watching the end, I couldn't. I tried but I just couldn't. So hopefully I missed out on some great twist or explanation of that terrible casting choice (again, not the actor's fault, although she should not have accepted). Yeah, you made a film, and I'm sure that at the wrap party everyone was proud. And I'm sure that the cast and crew screening finished with enthusiastic comments on a job well done. But a film is for an audience, and so what if you got to make a film that doesn't entertain, or enlighten, or work?
Instead of watching this, try watching something like the American TV film 'Speak' for a low budget teenage angst masterpiece. Or Thirteen. Or even the Australian film 2:37 (even though it is a rip-off of elephant.)
