Lost And Found

Review by Clint Morris

Before the days of running my own production company, it seemed as if it was going to take a genie to fulfill the three wishes I’d harboured for our local industry:

1) Yank some of these fabulous actors, like Brett Climo, out of ‘where have they been?’ obscurity,

2) Find financing for a good, local, vehicle,

3) Slot the abovementioned fab-types into the leads.

Filmmaker David Blake has welcomingly beaten me to the punch. Gives it a good slog he does, too.

If it weren’t the title, Lost and Found may have been a good headline for the daybill, sort of a precursor to the cast listing. After all, some of the fine folk in this haven’t been seen since Al Quaida became a household name, or Sugarless candy was put on the market for diabetics. And it’s a shame. A real shame that it’s taken this long for someone to put fine Aussie talent like Rebecca Gibney, Brett Climo and Nicholas Hope to use in, well, something other than an over-swollen American production - filmed on our shores, where they’re all reduced to nothing more than featured extras.

As peculiar as my eccentric mother-in-law, and as similarly as compelling, Lost and Found – and no, it is no relation to the David Spare clunker – is largely a showcase for Climo (A Country Practice, The Flying Doctors) who immerses himself in the role of an architect whose convinced there’s another version of him getting about town. 

As the mystery unravels, so does our lead.

Yeah OK, so the production looks as economical as it (probably) was, the editing could’ve used a few less fade-to-blacks, and the script could have been smacked around a bit more to give it a more of that ‘meticulously-reworked-and-reworked’ sagacity – but other than that, this is an venerable effort for a first-time filmmaker.

Markedly, Blake has given some of our finest talents – including Climo and the always-divine Rebecca Gibney – some of the meatiest parts they’ve had in years. In addition, Blake offers us credible characters, in captivatingly unique situations, that ultimately super glues one to the screen.

Look forward to his next effort.

3 out of 5

Lost And Found
Australian release: 26th April, 2006 (One Night Only - Sun Theatre, Yarraville)
Cast: Brett Climo, Rebecca Gibney, Nicholas Hope
Director: David Blake
Website: Click here.