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Playing For Charlie (Film)
Rating: M
Running Time: 95
Country: Australia
Director: Pene Patrick
Cast: Shane Connor, Jared Daperis, Jodie Rimmer, Mark Leonard Winter
Distributor: The Pack/Queen Ant Films
Film Worth: $13.50
Release Date: May 06, 2010 (Sydney, Melbourne)
A moving and ultimately uplifting film which has equal parts style and substance
Screen teens are usually troubled, rebellious and/or hormone-crazed. But Tony Hobbs, the protagonist of this uplifting, sometimes amusing coming-of-age drama, is different - he spends a lot of time pushing a pram across Melbourne's suburbs. It's a recurrent image, beautiful and unique. In the pram is Charlie, Tony's baby brother. Their father died the previous year, and mum Paula is forced to work evenings, leaving sixteen-year-old Tony in charge of Charlie. Paula isn't coping, and Tony is effectively head of the household.
He's a rugby player and this is about his burgeoning sports career. But it's not really a sports flick - nor is it a sad battlers' tale. It's a warm, inviting film about overcoming obstacles, one that's gently - as opposed to slowly - paced.
It takes a dramatic, almost nail-biting turn in its second half, where Tony's older half-brother, Scarf (Mark Leonard Winter) gets the rugby hopeful into strife. The scene works so well because of the investment debut writer/direct Pene Patrick has put into her characters, and it's at this moment when the film goes beyond being just very good into
something genuinely quite special.
Winter is excellent as the likeable bad seed Scarf, while Jodie Rimmer is fine as Paula. Shane Connor's Ruddock, Tony's rugby coach, has all the best lines, while Daperis handles the lead role with a natural ease - it's impossible to not like a guy who loves his baby brother so much. Even Charlie (actually played by a baby girl, Charlotte Zerna) is great. Babies can be mere props in movies, but this one's personality shines through.
Director Of Photography Leilani Hannah uses the occasional off-kilter angle and makes suburban Melbourne's visually interesting, while composer Lisa Gerrard (Gladiator) has done wonderful sonic work here.
A beautiful film, Playing For Charlie has as much style as it does substance.