THE CASTLE
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Miramax Films Director: Rob Sitch Writer: Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Santo Cilauro, Rob Stich Cast: Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Sophie Lee, Anthony Simcoe, Charles "Bud" Tingwell
Only right-wing extremists would refer to government workers as jack-booted thugs. In the U.S. such people usually stand up for the "right" to maintain an arsenal of AK- 47s in their homes and their "right" to keep all their income rather than re-distribute a portion to those not as well-off as they. For the government to take away your assault rifles is one story: to confiscate your home is yet another. While a man's place is his castle, governments do generally have the right to appropriate it (with just compensation) for a legitimate, substantial public purpose, such as the construction of a highway. But who cares about just compensation? A house is not a home. A home is a place that hopefully embodies an investment of love and gives its occupants a sense of identity and stability in a fast-changing world. To allow the authorities to commandeer such a prize without a fight is dishonorable. We may not feel sympathy for a guy who stashes grenades and artillery in his attic beyond the pale of the authorities. We do feel compassion for the little fella who wants only to maintain his anchor to a specific place in a world that seems to fall increasingly adrift. In "The Castle," writers Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch together with director Sitch enter Simon Beaufoy ("The Fully Monty") territory with a feel-good comedy that champions a hardy Australian scrapper while lightly satirizing and patronizing him at the same time.
"The Castle," which has been the subject of some curious marketing by Miramax, was a popular favorite at the 1998 Sundance Festival, was picked up by the Weinsteins for $6 million, then put on the shelf for months only to receive a modest marketing effort when finally released in a limited number of theaters. Only some impressive box office figures may save the movie from going straight to the videotape: a shame, because "The Castle" makes good use of the popular David vs. Goliath theme--providing lots of broad smiles if not belly-laughs while elevating sit-comish themes (such as those practiced by "Married With Children") to more literary levels.
Director Rob Sitch focuses most of his attention on Darryl Kerrigan (Michael Caton), a lower-middle class occupant of a modest but love-filled home located just a block or so from an airport on one side and a high-voltage tower on the other. He's obviously a bargain hunter, as the story illustrates time and again, as Darryl pooh-poohs attempts to sell him useless gadgets at inflated prices. Unfamiliar with life on the fast track, he is unimpressed by western society's rampant materialism and humankind's desire to show off its appreciation of the (materially) finer things in life like fancy food, vintage wine, and high-tech wizardry. To him, a cheese sandwich would probably be far-out. Each night he praises the cooking of his loving wife Sal (Anne Tenney), scarcely believing the joys of eating broiled chicken, meat loaf, and ice cream scooped right from the tub. His warmth carries over to his dense children Steve (Anthony Simcoe), Tracy (Sophie Lee), and the movie's narrator Dale (Stephen Curry), and even though the eldest son Wayne (Wayne Hope) is in jail for armed robbery, he keeps his family picture proudly on the stone wall above his cot.
When the government demands that Darryl vacate his home in order to expand the airport, Darryl files a class- action suit with his bumbling local lawyer, Dennis Denuto (Tiriel Mola), is inevitably trounced in court by the defendant's high-priced attorneys, and fulfills the dream of people throughout the democratic world by taking his case "all the way to the Supreme Court."
While the victory of the little guy has been exploited by movies like "Waterboy" and while Rob Sith's characters sometimes seem not much brighter than Bobby Boucher and his mom, these characters inspire genuine warmth in the audience despite the insistence of the filmmakers on satirizing their provincial ways. Dan Quayle would have no problem pointing the Kerrigans' robust family values. There's not a person on the right side of justice who can be unsympathetic. Darryl's neighbors, especially the clueless Lebanese immigrant Faroud, put their trust in him to save their homes. Despite Darryl's naivete (in court he cannot decide whether he is an appellant or a respondent), he is persistent, yet has none of the obsessive qualities of "Election"'s Tracy Flick.
Not even his opponents can hate him, even when he calls their lawyer a dickhead, and what woman with a heart can fail to be taken in by her husband's glorification of her ability with an ice-cream scoop? Sure: people of his social class will fill their basements with kitschy objects like oversized beer mugs while the rich load their studies with Picassos. Heaven knows, the working class are as ecstatic with their objets d'art as the affluent are with their investments. This is what makes this satire loving, not caustic, and its humor irrefutably pleasing.
Rated R. Running Time: 87 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews