Siam Sunset (1999)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

An action-packed slog

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's been over a decade since I first caught this film and I've got to say that in spite of playing with stereotypes, it still has a rare quality; something quintessentially Australian entirely devoid of our renowned cringe factor. Linus Roache, Danielle Cormack and Ian Bliss bring each of their characters to life with great craft and humour. Two Hands is the Sydney experience, Animal Kingdom is the Melbourne experience but Siam Sunset is the completely Oz experience. John Polson and the writers Max Dann and Andrew Knight did a wonderful job in highlighting many of our quirks and mores (for better or for worse) in a thoughtful and funny as hell way as we follow Perry (Roache) - the hapless disaster magnet from England through the shockingly funny death of his wife, his suburban London life crippled by the memories, and on to the tourist trip from hell as he sets off from Adelaide into the red heart of Australia. Grace (Cormack) and Martin (Bliss) are two of the most original cinema characters I've seen in years. In fact, these two characters remind me of many people I've known over the years, so in spite of comments of this movie playing to populism or stereotypes, I can't help but watch it and see the opposite. Alan Borough shines as Stuart - the Stratocaster-mangling singer songwriter and Bill Leach (Roy Billing) who still sticks in my mind not so much as the bus driver from hell, but rather as a ubiquitous bureaucrat of the worst order. Overall a surrealist but highly accurate and well observed ninety minute odyssey that will keep you laughing years after you've experienced it.

Anyone who has seen John Polson acting - in Blood Oath, Idiot Box or Raw Nerve, to name a few - knows that he's every bit the equal of his more famous aussie acting pal Russell Crowe. This, Polson's first film, betrays some of the weaknesses of the first-timer but wins out thanks to a fast-moving plot, great scenery and good central performances from Linus Roache and Danielle McCormack. Roache plays Perry, a floppy-haired industrial chemist who designs paint colours. Still mourning the loss of his wife who was killed by a falling refrigerator a year earlier (a darkly surreal scene somewhat out of step with the rest of the film), industrial chemist Perry inadvertently wins a bus tour to outback Australia. Seeking to recover from his loss and discover an elusive colour he can imagine but not create - the Siam Sunset of the title - Perry takes off for Oz. There he encounters a variety of characters, among them the bewitching Grace, who is fleeing her psychotic Doctor boyfriend Martin. As a series of bizarre accidents occur around him, Perry realises that the malignant force which led to the death of his wife is still pursuing him. In the dazzling wasteland of central Australia he has to come to terms with his grief and fight to establish a new life (or something like that). As stated, Siam Sunset suffers from some typical first-timer faults: the plotting is uneven, there's some bizarre non-sequiturs and not all of the jokes hit the spot. The energy of the film, however, wins you over. Cleverly written by Max Dann and Andrew Knight, the plot hurtles along the highway, stopping only for character development or greasy breakfasts cooked by Roy Billing's over sensitive bus company operator. Cinematographer Brian Breheny - who proved his skill at capturing outback Australia when he shot Priscilla Queen of the Desert - does a great job of bringing the film's dark humour to life. There are some darkly beautiful images in this film, such as when the busload of adventurers discover a hanged man circled by a swarm of butterflies, or when Perry, lookin gloomily out the back window of the bus, sees a massive storm in the distance, pursuing him like the manifestation of his ill-fate. The supporting cast - particularly Deidre Rubinstein and Terry Kenwrick as a suburban couple whose marriage is on the skids - are also excellent. Overall this is a great first effort and anyone who gives it a hard time should try looking at the first films of some 'great' directors and see how they compare. This is heaps better than many of those. So see it, and stop wingeing! Now, would someone please get Roache a haircut.

I really enjoyed this movie, as did the two others who attended with me. The humour is quirky and often unexpected. The message of the movie is, in my view, make the best of what life throws at you -- and for the main character, life throws quite a bit!!

The latest Australian film Siam Sunset is a mixed bag, a blend of styles and ideas, often attractive and entertaining but as a whole pretty sloppy. But there's enough there to ensure a pretty rosy sunset. An English paint technologist (that's new!), miserable after the on screen, bizarre, death of his wife (remember this is a comedy) wins a bus tour from Adelaide to Darwin. The other tourists are ugly Aussies. Once the quirky Australian flavour is established, most effectively by Roy Billing as Bill Leach the tour bus operator from hell, predictably, the tour becomes a comic nightmare, and a rather formulaic one in spite of some surprising plot details. The English fish out of water in our bush theme has become something of a tradition in recent Australian films. Oscar And Lucinda, Welcome To Woop Woop, Sirens and even Priscilla Queen Of The Desert where the proper, effete and English Terrence Stamp drag queen tries to make sense of outback customs spring to mind. Getting back to nature, or at least nearly perishing in the Australian desert seems to be considered to be a sure way to personal growth according to this genre. And not just for foreigners. On this particular bus to hell, an Australian Vietnamese, an atrocious singer songwriter, a masculine female army reservist, an overbearing tour bus operator, assorted be holidayed subrubanites and an urban lass on the run, face comic, sometimes ghastly dusty terror and learn from the experience. But for the most part the bit players aren't afforded enough interest by first time feature director John Polsen. They're just character bit players in a film full of bit playing plot elements. Danielle Cormack (the pregnant lead in Topless Women Talk About Their Lives) plays Grace, the female foil for our pommie paint specialist Perry played by Linus Roache (Priest). She's stolen a lot of money from her crooked doctor boyfriend Martin (Ian Bliss) and to escape joins the bus tour. She has the look of jail about her from the start, a hardness that is believable and more remarkable given her very different role and demeanor in Topless. Grace and Perry are effective even if they have to make do with some terrible scenes, especially one where they decide to throw paint against a wall. Some of the set ups just don't work, some are very effective. The elimination of the head villain is memorable but his character is for the most part far too obvious. Siam Sunset begins with an atrocious factory scene, a poorly imagined car washing (would you believe) sequence and then a strange death. But I can't stand car washing or room painting scenes featuring Paltrow young love! Hopes of another Sweetie or Love Serenade, Death In Brunswick or at least Welcome To Woop Woop sprang to mind; macabre Australian black comedies, but Siam Sunset only gave hints. John Polsen (the gay boy in The Sum Of Us) just flirted with that and with about six other genres and left us with a film that was much less than the sum of its parts.