User Reviews

At last! An Australian movie has made it to the big screen in California. Well, maybe not the big screen exactly. More a small to medium sized screen at my local art house movie theatre (I love you Nickelodean Santa Cruz), but it's a start. And there must have been, oh, at least twenty people there…… Don't my fellow residents of this huge and varied country realize what a gem they have missed when a movie of this rare originality reaches our shores? Why aren't they queuing around the block? This is a terrific movie – one of the year's best so far, right up there on my list alongside Inside Man and An Inconvenient Truth. I'm ashamed to admit I have never heard of Sarah Watt before but on this evidence I think she is a rare and original talent. And why in the 21st century is it still a talking point that a good movie is directed by a woman? But don't get me started.

I'm still trying to decide whether there is anything truly profound to be gleaned from Look Both Ways. Perhaps its very profundity is to be found in its complete lack of any message to be rammed down our throats. The basic premise of this movie is "bad stuff happens". No one's fault, it just does. And life goes on. That may sound like the storyboard for a movie full of cliché, but because Watt's movie is a masterclass in acting, the ultimate, hackneyed truisms of life are given beautiful expression. The performances are wonderful, and the camera work, production and editing of the film are perfect. In a summer stuffed with over long blockbusters, how nice to watch a film that ends when it should, and has a decent script and a story you can follow without taking notes and drawing up a flow chart.

The movie starts with a train wreck and then ventures into the unsteady territory of the potential train wrecks of the protagonists' lives. It's Friday, and the hero, Nick, a news photographer (William McInnes – an outstanding Australian actor barely known here in the USA), has just been told he has testicular cancer which has already moved into his lungs. He won't see another doctor until Monday for a detailed prognosis, so has the whole weekend in which to wander around in a state of shock and trauma, and to terrify himself researching his disease on the internet. He watched his father die of cancer, and knows what may be in store. On the way home he finds himself sidetracked to the site of a local accident. A man has fallen under a train, and the stunning photograph he takes of the victim's girlfriend hearing of the tragedy, makes it to the next day's front page. His reporter colleague Andy, (Anthony Hayes) has his own agenda and is determined to make it a suicide not an accident, part of his conspiracy theory that Australian men are killing themselves in droves. He's got an awkward ex-wife, two ill-mannered kids and a pregnant girlfriend, and is feeling pretty sorry for himself.

In the meantime Meryl, (Justine Clarke – who is this wonderful woman?) an artist on her way home from her father's funeral, witnesses the rail track death. She's obsessed with death already, seeing it lurking vividly in every detail of life. She paints violent and arresting pictures for herself ("It's cheaper than therapy" she says at one point) but earns a living painting bland watercolours for greeting cards. Meryl and Nick have a brief conversation, just enough to interest both of them in the possibilities of the other person. But due to a certain lack of communication skills, and a large dose of middle aged pessimism, they both stumble around convinced it's a non-starter. Lack of human communication skills is a theme running through the movie. Over the course of the weekend we see their tentative attempt to begin a relationship from such an inauspicious start, against the backdrop of a hot weekend in Adelaide and the general junk of daily life. Adelaide manages to look like Dagenham with sunshine – I'm still trying to decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I read that Watt is an animator, and I certainly loved the animations of Meryl and Nick's varied death fears. The dialogue is real, and frequent outbreaks of black humor make this a surprisingly entertaining movie given the subject matter. I simply dread to think what Hollywood could have done with this story.......let's see, maybe Adam Sandler in the lead with Jessica Simpson as Meryl and a portentous sound track by......no, it doesn't bear thinking about. The actors look like normal people, I just loved it all. It's sure to sink without trace here in the USA.

LOOK BOTH WAYS dances around death so frequently, using a barrage of images -- mainly watercolor cartoons which depict Meryl, the woman who can't seem to get over her father's passing and has a deadline to meet -- that it pounds the message to the ground: death is, in fact, everywhere, even in the mundane. Death is a part of life, but you wouldn't know that Meryl would have been informed of it by now as she continues to obssess over seeing her stop-motion doppelganger caught in the most ludicrous of situations. Then again, you wouldn't blame her: she is the witness of a train accident. Now, that's all she can think about -- being stomped to the ground by a derailed train is one of them. Being eaten by sharks is another.

And she's not alone: Nick has testicular cancer and is the reporter sent to interview Meryl (who later informs Nick, in a bit of unrelated information, that she is a Cancer as if to remind him he's not quite well, ha-ha). A relationship must ensue between the two of them who are battling their demons, and it all reaches a hilarious climax when they have a sexual tryst and the attack of the rapid-fire visual information hits the screen, depicting their inner thoughts. Whether it's been copied from other films, I can't say, but it made me laugh. Seeing Meryl's watercolor twin at the ends of an AIDs-related illness, as Nick sees microscopic organisms contributing to the overpopulation of the world in the form of an unwanted pregnancy, three babies who wail incessantly, and bring forth zaniness. It's hysterical.

LOOK BOTH WAYS is one of those quiet films that happen but get lost in the shuffle due to the lack of name actors and an overdose of independent film status. It barely got a chance to play in New York City early last year as it was, and maybe its own quirky material is to blame. Anyway, it's a good movie -- nothing spectacular, and a neat debut from director Sarah Watt.

Yet another movie that gets points taken away from awful music video scenes. Music is in a movie to enhance the movie, NOT TAKE THE PLACE OF A MOVIE. This has become quite a poor trend unfortunately. Look Both Ways has some good introspective dialog and genuine humor and insightful intelligence built into it's script. It's characters are well put together. But no sooner do we finish a compelling and interesting scene, we (the audience) are rudely interrupted by soundtrack, clumsy and meaningless, blaring in as if trying to fill a void that isn't really there to begin with. Unfortunately this seems to be more of a norm with many contemporary movies. "Since we cant think of interesting ways to cut to another scene, lets just throw in a sappy, folksy, and unintelligent music video. As if images themselves don't convey enough. (spoilers) The cutaway or added animation was interesting but directors should give more thought to their soundtracks and especially how they're employed - better editing needed.

it's a pity this was filmed in Adelaide. no offense to Adelaide people - love your "city", very pretty place, but i think such a great film ought to have been made the way it was intended and this was intended to be a Melbourne movie. i read an article a couple of weeks ago about it and evidently quite a lot had to be changed to take into account the change of location. for some reason filming in Melbourne wasn't as feasible as in Adelaide. i can imagine what this film would have been like set in Melbourne. but still, my point is more that a film so great ought to have been unhampered by monetary concerns and shame on the Australian film industry (again) for hampering a local project through lack of vision. my other gripes with the film are some dodgy acting from the support roles and a rather too neat ending that was already upbeat enough. a bit of ambiguity would have left me feeling more satisfied than the neat little "wrap-up montage" at the end. but the main cast was brilliant. i wish more movies about the Australian summer were released at the end of winter - i could feel the heat watching it. my favourite artistic aspect of this movie was the fact that the partner of the guy who died on the train tracks and the driver of the train both remained silent for almost the entire film. the first time either of them spoke was when the driver came to the woman's house and said he was sorry and gave her a card and she said it wasn't his fault and almost cried for the first time and they pressed hands and he left. such poignancy. before that they were just images of grief, mimes acting out the turmoil of loss and trauma and guilt, at that moment they became people surviving life's losses, connected through that one tragic event. i love this film. it is flawed, but in its flaws it is strikingly beautiful and most important of all - real.