LOVE SERENADE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"Ever hear the expression, 'Stop the world'?" intones the sultry radio announcer. "Well, my name is Ken Sherry, and I stopped the world and got off in Sunray."
Ken Sherry, played by Howard Stern look-alike George Shevtsov, is the new radio host. Coming as he does from a big career 900 kilometers away in the large city of Brisbane, he becomes a demigod to the residents of little Sunray. Sunray, Australia with its dried up grass and small, dusty streets looks more like small town America than small town America.
Ken's rocky face, sad and droopy eyes, and melancholy demeanor, makes a deep imprint even before the deep tones come out of his throat. Thrice divorced and in his mid-40s, he is a stoic and a philosopher. ("With all its shame and drudgery, it is still a beautiful world," he tells his radio audience before putting on the next old record -- usually a 70s song about "procreation.") Ken doesn't ask women to make love to him, rather he wants them to "ease his loneliness."
First-time movie writer and director Shirley Barrett teams up with three talented leads to give the world a wry and intelligent comedy and character study. Winner of the Camera d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, LOVE SERENADE weaves a story that is romantic, funny, quirky, and poignant. The film is as hard to pigeonhole as it is to guess how it will be wrapped up. Although the ending is what people may talk about, it is character development that makes the story compelling.
What is especially challenging and successful about LOVE SERENADE is the way Barrett takes three quite different characters and gives them equal weight. Most first-time filmmakers can barely do one character right. If they spread themselves and their characters too thin, they create none with any depth, as in another recent and much less successful film by another first-time Australian director, LOVE AND OTHER CATASTROPHES.
Ken rents a house next door to the two Hurley sisters. 26-year-old Vicki-Ann, played prim and proper by Rebecca Frith, is on the prowl for a boyfriend, and she thinks Ken would be the perfect catch. (The show has many fish metaphors and images.) She tries everything, including leaving casseroles on his doorstep, to reel him in, but she cannot get even a nibble.
Ever confident Vicki-Ann, who works as a beautician, is a natty and colorful dresser with complete make-up always in place. Her striving for perfection in clothes and coiffure makes her love making especially awkward.
Her sister, and surrogate daughter, Dimity is a complete opposite. Dimity, played by Miranda Otto in the most interesting and funniest performance of the film, has almost no self-confidence. She seems to have lived her 20 years in hiding, lest something awful happen to her. She works as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant run by a strange character named Albert Lee (John Alansu). He practices nudism he tells everyone, but only in the privacy of his own home.
Dimity, who wears nerdy and drab clothes, has never kissed a man. She bites her lip and slouches most of the time. Her hangdog look makes her look as unattractive as her sister looks overly made-up. Dimity has no social graces and commits the faux pas of telling Ken that her sister is looking for a boyfriend. She lacks all of the confidence that Vicki-Ann radiates.
The lead up to Dimity's love making scene has to be one of the funnier and more unusual ones on record. Watch especially how she has a fixed smile frozen on her face with her teeth clinched together when the love making starts.
Towards the end, the show turns bittersweet, but it is in the story leading up to the end that the picture has its strengths. Any one of the three characters would have been interesting enough for most pictures.
LOVE SERENADE is a subtle comedy without many big laughs, but with three touching performances.
LOVE SERENADE runs 1:40. It is rated R for brief nudity and sex. The show would be fine for any teenager. I recommend this quirky film to you and give it ***.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: June 19, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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