SILENT PARTNER
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is a film from Australia with overtones of
David Mamet and of OF MICE AND MEN. Two low-lifes get a
chance to groom a greyhound for racing for a gangster.
They want to parlay this into a stab at the good life.
SILENT PARTNER is basically a two-character play adapted
to the screen. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4)
SILENT PARTNER is a two-person play adapted to the screen with virtually no dialog from anyone but John and Bill (played David Field and Syd Brisbane). They are two lowlifes with dreams who live mostly on borrowed money and spend it on beer and the occasional bet at the dog track. Through thick accents and drunken talk we follow them as they have a shot at the big time. A shady kingpin, Alex Silver, sees them at the racetrack and decides to use them in a scheme involving dog racing. Silver wants John and Bill to buy a greyhound, care for her, and race her locally. He will give them the money to tend the dog in return for 70% of the dog's winnings. The drunken pair name the dog "Silent Partner" after Silver's role in the deal. Bill develops a genuine affection for the dog. Bill's outings training the dog are some of the few scenes where we see him sober and we see John sober in even fewer, yet Bill lets John run the show and allows himself to become almost a silent partner. John never doubts he has what it takes to swim with the sharks. Through the alcohol haze John thinks he is smart and worldly, though frequently his skill seems limited to knowing whom he can hit up for one of the ever decreasing loans. The two have little social life without each other and it rarely is at anyplace but bars, the track, the squalid filthy house, and the occasional peep show. People like John and Bill are unusual subjects for film, thank goodness.
The timing of the dialog is a little too perfect to be believed as the two talk with nearly perfect timing. The Daniel Keene's dialog, based on his own play, is unnaturally perfect, much as David Mamet might craft it. Mamet might also approve of the underbelly society and grimy settings. Director Alkinos Tsilimidos filmed SILENT PARTNER almost linearly to create more natural emotions from his actors, but he kept crew ignorant of the script to aid in spontaneity. The film was shot for an amazing $7000 US.
Technically, the film is probably a comedy but it is not the kind of comedy that generates laughter. More frequently it is just an exercise in bitter irony. The songs by Paul Kelly are, like the dialog, a little too perfect. In some cases the songs give away plot that is coming. Americans will likely have some problems picking up the entire dialog. That can be a problem since Silver's plan is never clearly explained.
SILENT PARTNER is a bitter black comedy delivered in a thick inebriated Australian accent. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
markrleeper@yahoo.com
Copyright 2001 Mark R. Leeper
========== X-RAMR-ID: 29806 X-Language: en X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10
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