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The Rage In Placid Lake (Film)
Film Worth: $11.00
Australia has a perilous track record when it comes to teen comedies. What we are good at is quirk with that down-home charm. Combining the two genres in The Rage In Placid Lake, director Tony McNamara has come up with a bit of an anomaly.
The film follows the post-high school anticlimax of its title character, Placid Lake (Lee), a mordantly witty, impulsive outcast whose irritatingly unconventional hippy parents drive him to emotional ruin. After a life-threatening "accident" Placid has a revelation - if he casts off his rebellion, gets a job in insurance and imitates the bullies who routinely beat him, he may just become "normal". But being ordinary turns out to be more of a challenge than the enigmatic Placid Lake could ever anticipate.
Placid Lake seems set in a nowhere-world of comic pop-philosophy, with characters routinely spouting self-help mantras that are usually best left to support groups. But despite their inherent pretension, the sometimes mawkish insights never manage to come across as cliché, thanks largely to singer Ben Lee, who, as a first time actor, sharp-shoots a charming combination of geeky awkwardness and unbreakable charisma. And he's perfectly in synch with Rose Byrne as his would-be lover. Whip-smart and irreparably anti-social, Byrne's Gemma makes a perfectly angsty sidekick.
The Rage In Placid Lake does have a few scripting thorns in its side. The comedy could have been worked harder and the resolution, in coming about all too easily, is an anticlimax. But Placid Lake is still easy to get a crush on.