Amy

As there are no comments here on my fav film i thought i'd put one. I found this film amazing. I loved it. i have now watched it 4 times on video and thinking of watching it again this afternoon. It's a fine movie to show the world just how great and touching our movies can be. Rachel Griffiths and Alana De Roma were excellent. And all supporting cast were fab. And the songs were great and well picked for where they were put into the story. Okay i better get back to my h/w now. Then watch AmY again!

"Amy" is an Australian Post "(Almost) Famous "with the side themes of Rock 'n' Roll Giveth and Rock 'n' Roll Takes It Away, or Our Lives Were All Saved By Rock 'n' Roll.

Combining the kind of grittiness and optimistic magic realism of "Billy Elliott," with the Ozzie quirky characters of "Muriel's Wedding," "Amy" avoids over-sentimentalizing its story of a grieving rock star widow and daughter and the other dysfunctionals who befriend them against a range of outsiders.

The original music is enjoyable, the covers unusual and the little girl with the luminous eyes and surprising voice startlingly good.

Rachel Griffiths has great chemistry in a changing relationship with a strong Ben Mendelsohn as a reclusive musician who is as touched by the girl as she is by him.

The supporting nuts are great fun, especially when singing.

We also get a nice tour of Melbourne as a bonus.

(originally written 5/27/2001))

I'd have to say I wouldn't like this movie half as much as I do if the little girl, Amy, hadn't been such a wonderful actress. I was just blown away by her singing abilities, as well as her acting abilities. I hope we see more of Alana in the future.

If we talk about non-American movies, European and Asian cinema are quite well known, but Australia seems to stay behind a bit. However, from time to time one of their movies makes it all the way to one of our TV-stations and sometimes they offer a nice surprise. "Amy" is one of those Australian movies that are more than just worth a watch...

It is about an eight year old girl that has become mentally mute and deaf after she witnessed her father die on a stage during a rock concert. She lives with her mother on a farm, but because the government wants to take her from her mother, they are convinced that she is mistreated by her mom, they both move to the big city. Here they end up in a bad neighborhood, full of people who stand very low on the social ladder. At first the neighbors aren't too happy with the "intruders", but one of them soon finds out that he can communicate with Amy by making music and singing...

Even though the movie had its weaker moments, overall this is a very touching story that has been done in a very nice way. All the singing started to work a bit on my nerves after a while, but it wasn't that awful that it made me forget about the beauty of the movie. I guess you have to be the ultimate macho to say that this movie didn't touch you a bit and even then I wouldn't believe you. Personally I liked this movie very much and that's why I give it at least a 7.5/10.

I liked this movie but I was a bit confused as to what sort of movie it was - I would say it was a pot pourri of type. Was it a drama with quirky little pieces of dark comedy and surrealism thrown in for good measure? One wonders whether the director or producers could not make their minds up as to what type of movie it would be. Perhaps everyone got their way. It might have made more at the box office if it had been a children's story - which it probably is, if you take out the swearwords, and family violence etc. In my opinion, this great cast of actors might have been a little bit let down by the script, which could have built better stories of victory over adversity with each character, and also added a little more surrealism.

This movie certainly showed some dramatic snapshots of some of the lives and situations of people living in Australia. The coppers singing whilst searching for Amy was fantastic. Mendelsohn's 'lyrics of life' were also deep and meaningful.

Alana De Roma's performance as a singer and actor were excellent. Golly, has she got a future!

I would rate this movie as a 6.5 out of 10; well worth watching.

[Was it a touch of irony that one time Melbourne rock legend Bobby Bright played the busker on the street? Why wasn't he singing "Hitch Hiker"?]