Before it’s world premiere screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival, I came into this film with some misconceptions after reading the blurb in the MIFF program. With the description ”...somewhat of a country town Casanova. The local girls want to fornicate with him and their fellas want to fight him.” I had visions of a reworked Alvin Purple. I was pleasantly surprised that this film went far beyond that.
From the team of Tony Rogers, Adam Zwar and Jason Gann (of “The Wedge” fame), this was the story of journalist Ben Baxter investigating the post stardom life of a once household name actor by the name of Darren McWarren. Darren is now in self imposed exile in a small country town. Although he was trying to put his fame behind him, he still enjoyed the attention of some local groupies and the odd tourist. In an obvious nod to a certain Australian born Hollywood star, Darren sang for a band called “Black Diamond” that still kept him in the public’s view, albeit only locally.
The character of Darren had shades of Jason Gann’s character in the Wedge, Mark Wary. They both were often oblivious to the damage that they caused through their actions, both seemed to be fairly clueless characters. However as the film progressed, the audience came to learn more about Darren as a regular guy, finally feeling empathy for his mess of a life.
The film has economical pacing that gently builds up the jokes and situations. A great deal of the laughs came from the comments from Darren’s mouth, with the best lines often coming from his Man Friday. There didn’t seem to be a great deal of character development for the supporting cast, but seeing as the film revolved around Darren, this wasn’t a problem. They were described to the audience just enough to help get Darren to the next stage of the story.
The film-makers have claimed that they wanted to “break the mould of the stereotypical Australian film…it’s humour will penetrate further than the laconic feel good comedy.” I felt that there were a number of local references that probably wouldn’t travel. The cast of uniquely Australian characters was likely to anchor the film to what the writers were working against. Although the humour did begin as fairly dark, the audience’s warming to the character of Darren did inject a bit feel good sentiment to proceedings. The inclusion of a number of rather laconic characters certainly didn’t help their cause.
Being a local production, I was distracted somewhat in my viewing of the film, looking for familiar faces and locations. A number of Melbourne comedians pop up in small roles including Lawrence Leung in a line-less role as Ben’s fellow reporter, Justin Hazelwood as the “funky guy in the pub” and Wayne Dixon as a boxing commentator.
“Rats and Cats” is definitely worth a look if it gets a theatrical release. It will inevitably show up on DVD in the future.
“Rats and Cats” will be screening as part of MIFF’s Travelling Film Festival. The MIFF travels to Echuca between 15 – 17 September , Geelong 22-24 September and Devenport Tasmania 6 – 8 October. See http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/Travelling_Film_Festival.php for details.