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Australia · 1997
1h 35m
Director Chris Kennedy
Starring Matt Day, Richard Roxburgh, Miranda Otto, Roy Billing
Genre Comedy
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Following a passion for country music, Ralph leaves his father’s sheep farm in a remote Australian town, armed with a guitar and a plane ticket to Nashville, Tennessee. He hopes to hitchhike to Sydney Airport where his take-off into a successful country/western singing career will hopefully begin. However, fate and his naivety find him hitchhiking with a psychotic drug thief named Boyd, and Boyd's mesmerising girlfriend, Patsy. The plot then splits into a series of parallels, flash forwards and flashbacks. One depicts Ralph’s imprisonment after being framed for drug trafficking. The other follows the dramatic ascent of his career to hype status and the pairing between the dynamic Patsy and himself.
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Writer-director Chris Kennedy delights in torturing his poor protagonist--what are the odds that a massive Aussie line dancers' convention would take place in the abandoned train yard right across the street from his jail?--but enduring this oddly humorless "comedy" is even harder on the audience.
Overall the charm of the film works its spell, and director Kennedy shows confidence in juggling understated comedy and gently sentimental drama.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
A down–under fable with a sweet country-music twang.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The saving graces of the film, written and directed by Chris Kennedy, are its performances, especially Mr. Roxburgh's portrayal of a floundering lost soul with little to show for an itinerant life, and Ms. Otto's ditsy, mercurial and ultimately touching country singer.
Where else can you get to hear Otto sing "Crazy"?
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