TWO HANDS (M). (REP) Director: Gregor Jordan Stars: Heath Ledger, Bryan Brown, Rose Byrne, David Field, Susie Porter, Steven Vidler, Steve Le Marquand, Tom Long, Tony Forrow, Mariel McClorey, Evan Sheaves Running time: 103 minutes.
Lock, Stock And Two Hands?
The gritty urban crime thriller is one genre that Australian film makers have rarely tackled, and not very well at that. Tyro feature film director Gregor Jordan is to be congratulated for not only treading a path less well worn, but for also carrying it off beautifully. Two Hands follows the same irreverent, jokey and blokey approach that worked so appealingly with last year's hit British thriller Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. However, Jordan carefully steers away from too much gratuitous violence and deftly avoids the misogynistic touches of that film.
Rising young Aussie star Heath Ledger, recently seen in the enjoyable if formulaic teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, brings plenty of charm and sex appeal to the film. He plays Jimmy, a naive youth who works as a doorman at a Sydney strip club. But Jimmy has aspirations of making it big through mutual connections with Pando (Bryan Brown), the unforgiving villain who rules Sydney's Kings Cross area. He finally gets his chance when Pando offers him an opportunity to prove himself. All Jimmy has to do is drop off $10,000 at a flat.
But complications quickly set in. Thinking that no-one is home, Jimmy goes to the beach to fill in time before trying again. While he is swimming, two homeless kids snatch the money. Jimmy is in deep trouble as Pando is out for his blood. His only hope of salvation lies in replacing the money, and quickly. Which is how he comes to be involved in a bank robbery, organised by his sister-in-law (Susie Porter, from the awful Welcome To Woop Woop, etc) and the incompetent Wozza (Steve Le Marquand).
The various characters continually cross paths and interact with each other on an inevitable collision course that will end in death and violence. Jordan has a razor sharp writing style, and brings touches of black comedy to the energetic plot. He directs with remarkable assurance and confidence, and also keeps the action moving at a rapid pace. Jordan makes good use of Sydney's streets and the sleazy, neon drenched area of King's Cross, giving the film a sense of realism.
The characters are well-drawn and brought to life by a cast attuned to the nuances of the script. Jordan draws a wonderfully menacing performance from Brown, an often wooden performer. Brown actually looks like he's enjoying himself with his role here and he seems far more comfortable than he did in the recent, embarrassingly awful Dear Claudia. Ledger confirms his status as the next Australian to hit it big on the international scene with his confident and brash performance here.
The only weak point of the film is the creaky device centring around the almost supernatural character of the dead man (Steven Vidler), who acts as a narrator and moral conscience of the story.
Fast-paced, action-packed and immensely enjoyable, Two Hands is easily one of the most exciting and entertaining locally produced films for quite some time.
**** greg king http://www.netau.com.au/gregking
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