Dir. Paul Goldman, Australia/US, 2003, 96 mins
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Rose Byrne, Dennis Hopper, Melanie Griffith
This is a terrific little Australian movie, which was made a couple of years ago and has only now shown up here. It's based on a true story, that of Frank Sinatra's apparently disastrous tour of Australia in 1974 and though some true life characters, including Old Blue Eyes himself and trade union boss Bob Hawke, who later became Australian prime minister, feature in it, as the film's makers put it; " this is not a documentary, we've taken creative license with our characters".
Joel Edgerton, seen recently in “Kinky Boots”, is very different in this and makes a most engaging lead as Rod Blue, the ambitious young promoter on his uppers, who pulls off the coup of his career, when he manages to persuade the great man to do the tour. He's a real hoot at the beginning with 70s big hair and loads of face fuzz, although in order to hook his big fish he has to clean up his sartorial act and get a hair cut. He's a very likeable loser of a central character. Rose Byrne plays his super bright assistant and would-be girlfriend, who is constantly pulling him out of the mire. You'll recognise her too from more recent films such as "Troy" and "Wicker Park". Dennis Hopper is not for my money much of a Frank lookalike, but he captures a lot of the spirit, attitude, gestures and stage technique and particularly the duel personality of the star, full of unreasonable demands, being a stubborn, arrogant pain in the bottom and yet also capable of great kindness and generosity. Melanie Griffith is very sympathetic as Barbara Marx, Frank's then girlfriend and would-be wife (she later achieved that wish, staying married to him until his death), while Portia Rossi as Hilary, who happens to be a former one night stand of Rod's, is well nigh as stubborn and arrogant as Frank. She is the journalist the star insults and then refuses to apologise to - a refusal which brings out both the Australian resistance to uppity foreigners or "tall poppies", which need to be cut down, and indeed the whole city out on strike. Also on hand is the late David Hemmings as Sinatra's tough lawyer Rudin, who gives Rod a hard time.
It’s a really good and very funny tale full of stroppy Oz attitude and with some nice hindsight jokes - one particularly good one about Bob Hawke. Writers Peter Clifton and Michael Thomas and director Paul Goldman have fictionalised the facts very well to make it a strong human story and a highly stimulating clash of cultures.
Carol Allen
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