Unfinished Sky (2007)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Fantastic!

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I spent a few years living in Australia and while improving my English, I developed a love of this country's cinematic tradition. This film has stuck in my mind ever since. While seeing it with foreign eyes probably helped, anyone that enjoys a good romance film will find something to like about it.This film follows a widowed farmer that seems fairly happy living the life of on the land alone with only his faithful dog to keep him company. Enter one mysterious, scared and battered woman into his life and you have the makings of a good mystery romance.The acting is excellent and while the plot is predictable, the mystery subplot was a bit under-cooked, its heartwarming where it needs to be and serious at the right time too.

When Australia cinema decide to make good films, no one can beat them! Not only are their stories inspired, but they make excellent movies. Take Peter Duncan's "The Unfinished Sky", which we were fortunate to catch recently. This film and Ray Lawrence's satisfying "Jindabyne" are two of the best movies that have come out form Down Under lately. Mr. Duncan, who is also the adapter of the original Dutch film, "The Polish Bride", written for the screen by Kees Van Der Hulst, transferred the story to Australia's Queensland, a great idea because of the type of farmers that live isolated lives in that area of the country.John Woldring, a lonely widower, lives in his sheep farm. He blames himself for the death of his wife, who evidently has died in an accident, but John feels he killed her. When John spots a battered and wounded woman running near his house, he goes out to see what's going on. He is shocked by what he sees because she has been given quite a beating. In spite of turning her to the police, John keeps her home. The stranger is deeply traumatized.The local police officer comes to inquire whether John has seen the fleeing woman. John lies because even though he doesn't know the circumstances that made the woman run away from an unknown situation. To make matters worse, this wounded stranger speaks no English. When he shows her a map, she points to Afghanistan as to the country she came from. That makes it almost impossible for him to know what she is trying to communicate to him.Little by little she reveals her name, Tahmeena. She tries to illustrate what happened to her by drawing a sort of family tree in which someone's name shows an arrow that points in Australia's direction. John warms up to Tahmeena by giving her clothes from his late wife's closet. Tahmeena, in turn, begins to straighten out the mess John has made of the house. John resents Tahmeena's cleaning, but he realizes she wants to pull her weight. She hates his sausages, which she considers to be dog food. She wants to teach him to eat right!One thing John doesn't appreciate is the way Tahmeena figures how to solve an abandoned jigsaw puzzle depicting a blue sky with some clouds rests unfinished on a table. We figure this is something left from the time his wife was around; John just wants to cling to something from his former life. The secret John has been carrying with him is revealed, when the grateful parents of a young man John and Tahmeena have found wounded on the road pay a visit. They want him to come to a party they are giving, but he prefers to stay away. The couple tells him he can't go on grieving his wife forever because she had an accident and didn't kill her.Things come to a head one night when the owner of the pub in town and his son, who have suspected all along John is hiding the woman, come to get her. They are in for a surprise! The same goes for the local policeman, who is also part of the puzzle that got Tahmeena hurt. The real reason behind Tahmeena's beating becomes clear. The bad policeman has a lot to say about what really went on at the hotel.Peter Duncan's direction got excellent performances of the two stars. William McInnes plays the taciturn John Woldring with conviction. The same can be said of the understated performance of Monic Hendrickx, the original actress in the Dutch original. Both Mr. McInnes and Ms Hendrickx are the reason for watching this satisfying movie, which they make a winner. Robert Humphreys captures that part of Australia in vivid detail. The music score of Anthony Partos is another asset in the film.

I'm a sucker for romance. No, I didn't give Legally Blonde a ten, but I'm pretty tragic: I watched Notting Hill three times.That's what I thought I was getting this time. I was wrong.I recorded this, and it was a few months until I got around to watching it.It helps if you don't know that it's a remake: but by now, you do. Or of what... If you've seen the other movie, you can watch this one too: trust me, you have NOT seen it before! When I watched it, I didn't know it was a re-make; I didn't even know it was Australian. I take the point of the poster who said this is two stories compressed into the one movie: it is. He believes that's over-doing it. I respectfully disagree: in Australia, we often find the "one idea" Hollywood treatment of a story quite unsatisfying.This movie had me in from the opening scenes. It's one of the few movies I wouldn't pause to take a phone call. That's my highest accolade, and this one earns it.Notice the high ratings the Australian posters are giving it? That's not entirely because we like our own films. It's also because this has an authenticity that is utterly compelling, if you happen to speak Australian. If you do speak Australian, you will realise that the power of this story is in what is NOT said. Which tends to be the way rural Australians communicate! Outback Australia really is like this: particularly the north of the country.

Interesting concept. It was quite well acted, it had captivating cinematography at times, and I found it entertaining, humorous, and humane. Overall a good, solid movie without the usual boring script. I was surprised, as I usually find independent movies a total hit or miss experience. This one, shockingly, had a clear ending with only a minimal cheesy factor :) I vacillated between feeling compassion for the characters and respect for the director/script writer. I would whole heartedly recommend the watching of this movie and look forward to see how other individuals react. I would be interested in knowing if there was an alternate ending to the movie.