This method of worst case thinking and intensely suspicious behaviour has made us all quite suspicious in general and at times emotionally dismissive. It has also lead to us being dreadfully wrong about people and situations on many occasions and created a lot of unnecessary stress within our already fragile family dynamic over the years.
What I do know for sure is that finding peace-time in our family is not getting any easier as the years go by, and regardless of how hard we try to make meaningful relationships with each other, we are just kidding ourselves if we think that it is ever going to be sane or normal.
Don't get me wrong, I do love my family, and I do believe that we have all done the best with what we have; we just never really had the minerals to begin with. But I'm not mad about that or bitter about it. I just want to enjoy my family, without the dramatics and suspicions. I'd like to have fond memories of all of them to look back on in my twilight years, surely that is not too much to ask for?
Release Date: 2009
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 90 mins
Based on the novel of the same name by Denise Young and directed by first time film maker Glendyn Ivin, this Australian drama follows a 10 year old boy (Tom Russell) as he accompanies his father (Hugo Weaving), who is wanted by the police, across Australia.
Chook, as his father calls him, is forced to make some big calls after his haphazard and desperate criminal father Kev, takes him on a trip across the Australian Outback as he tries to outrun the law. Pitted against each other and the elements, things go from bad to worse rapidly.
This is a deeply emotional film, enhanced by the extreme desolation and stillness of the outback. Russell and Weaving are tremendous together, their onscreen relationship was convincingly strained, and Weaving's portrayal of a degenerate father is at times, nothing short of terrifying. This movie is set to stun, with its inevitably harrowing ending and slow release back stories, it is easily the saddest road trip movie of all time.
FINAL SAY: The last, and the saddest, ride through the outback.
3.5 Chili Peppers