STRANGE PLANET (M). (NewVision) Director: Emma-Kate Croghan Stars: Claudia Karvan, Naomi Watts, Alice garner, Aaron Jeffery, Felix Williamson, Tom Long, Hugo Weaving Running time: 92 minutes.
Whenever an exciting new talent bursts onto the screen, much as young Aussie film maker Emma-Kate Croghan did in 1996 with her impressive low budget debut Love And Other Catastrophes, they set high standards for their sophomore feature. Unfortunately, her follow up film Strange Planet lacks much of the same energy, verve, flair and wit. Written by Croghan and regular collaborator Stavros Kazantzidis, Strange Planet is somewhat flat, disjointed and predictable.
An exploration of love and relationships on the brink of a new millennium, Strange Planet explores twelve months in the lives of its twentysomething protagonists, who all find themselves single one New Years' Eve. They all decide that they will find true love and happiness before the end of the new year. Ewan (Sea Change's Tom Long), Joel (Aaron Jeffery, from The Interview) and Neil (Felix Williamson) are colleagues in a law firm. Judy (Claudia Karvan, from Paperback Hero, etc), Alice (Naomi Watts) and Sally (Alice Garner, from Love And Other Catastrophes, etc) are school mates who share a flat together in Sydney. Over the course of the next twelve months, these six characters cross paths and slowly establish relationships.
In spanning six characters and twelve months, the narrative becomes episodic and lacks focus. The recent, and superior, Playing By Heart explored similar themes and issues, but managed to do so with a lot more heart, warmth and intelligence.
The performances from the ensemble cast are fine, but we get little opportunity to develop much empathy for the clichéd characters. Karvan is solid as the ambitious Judy, and has probably the best developed role. Williamson provides most of the humour as the desperate and dateless Neil, whose attempts to find the perfect partner eventually lead him to a computer dating agency. Hugo Weaving pops up briefly as a smarmy television producer with whom Judy has an affair.
Croghan has re-located many of the same ideas and themes from Love And Other Catastrophes to Sydney, but somehow this time round the film seems tired and clichéd. The writing lacks the same smart style and hip humour that gave her first film its winning spark. Croghan has re-assembled some of the key technical personnel from Love And Other Catastrophes, including cinematographer Justin Bickle and editor Ken Sallows, to give the film a cohesive look and fluid style. However she is only moderately successful in recapturing the same freshness and vitality. Despite an undeniably slick visual quality, the film lacks energy and plods along.
** greg king http://www.netau.com.au/gregking
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