Burning Man
Review by Anthony Morris
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Burning Man
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This one's going to be a bit tricky.
Thanks to a resolutely
non-linear story-telling method that only starts to settle down in the
second half, pretty much all the main events in Burning Man are spoilers of some kind.
Let's just say that Tom (Matthew Goode) is a Bondi-based chef who’s somewhat tightly wound at the moment.
He
seems to have having trouble – and sex – with a variety of women, but
the nature of those relationships is somewhat blurred. He definitely
has a son who’s being hurt by his wild, erratic behaviour, but whether
Tom sees this – or could bring himself back from the brink if he even
wanted to – remains an open question.
There's a lot to like
about this film: Goode gives an excellent performance as a character
who goes from charming to bastard and back again (occasionally in the
same scene), while the parade of women in his life (including Bojana
Novakovic, Rachel Griffiths, Essie Davis and Kerry Fox) all manage to
bring different angles to characters largely required to play
"exasperated".
The film’s big weak point is the story, and
clearly writer / director Jonathan Teplitzky (who based it loosely on
events in his own life) knows it; that’s why the first third of the
film is a collection of isolated scenes shown out of order (though they
do reflect on each other, in often very interesting ways) to create a
mystery than really, once what’s actually going on becomes clear,
vanishes totally.
The actual story here is extremely simple
and highly emotional, and the disjointed narrative in some ways does
the emotional side of things a disservice : there’s no mystery here
once things become clear, and making it seem like there is under-cuts
the clearly deeply felt (but admittedly very straight-forward) story
that lies underneath.
3.5 out
of 5
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Australian release: 17th November,
2011
Official
Site: Burning Man
Cast: Matthew Goode, Bojana Novakovic, Essie Davis, Rachel Griffiths, Kerry Fox, Anthony Hayes
Director: Jonathan Teplitzky
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