Around the Block, directed by Sarah Spillane, is an inspirational tale of love, revenge and triumph in urban Australia. While its central plot is almost cliché now, it breaks the mould in interesting ways and paints a strikingly real picture of a world often overlooked.
Around the Block tells the story of Dino Chalmers (Christina Ricci), an English and Drama teacher who has recently moved to the suburb of Redfern in order to be with her fiancé. There she meets and befriends Liam (Hunter Page-Lochard), a boy caught in the depression of Redfern who harbours a secret love for theatre. Dino quickly raises spirits in the local high school by putting on a production of Hamlet with an almost completely Indigenous cast, allowing Liam and his friends to shine. Meanwhile, Liam must deal with his brother’s (Mark Coles Smith) deadly plot for revenge, and find a way out of a cycle that threatens to destroy his family.
There are, of course, many parallels between this film and Hamlet, but they are not used crudely. In fact, much of the emotional impact of the last half of the film come from the mixing of classic English tragedy and the tragedy of urban Australian life.
There are some great actors in this film. Christina Ricci is fantastic, as is Matt Nable as Liam’s father and Ursula Yovich as Liam’s dear mum. Page-Lochard is the standout performer of the film, which almost goes without saying. His understated portrayal of Liam really brings the character to life.
Of course, with the good comes the bad and unfortunately a few extras and sub-characters don’t really hit the mark. There is just a bit of unconvincing acting at the start of film, which, coupled with a few messy scenes, really highlights the constructed nature of the film rather than getting you immersed. Around the Block also suffers from the over-use of exposition. Instead of letting characters emerge naturally it insists on using other characters to simply state things like: “Oh, him? He’s this sort of character archetype. Better look out for him!”
The movie really comes into its own after the half-way mark though, as characters begin to reveal their “other-sides” and begin to grow. Dino, for example, finds her true self after meeting Hannah (Ruby Rose) in a bar, and Liam begins to take theatre, and love, seriously. We are allowed to see into the powerful under-current of these people’s lives, which is what really makes this movie great.
There are many touching, feel-good scenes in Around the Block, such as when Dino helps the kids get into Shakespeare by relating him to American rapper Tupac, and also some heart-wrenching ones that make for a generally well-balanced film.
Although Around the Block begins as an almost painfully typical feel-good flick, it soon switches things up with impactful results. Even with a few flaws here and there, it is still a great example of Australian cinema and an interesting choice for the Feast Film Festival line-up.
Around the Block will screen at 1.30pm on Saturday 28 June 2014. Tickets are available from the Feast office, through FeastTix online or phone 8463 0684, or at the door if not sold out.
Reviewed by James Rudd
Rating out of 10: 7
The Feast Film Festival runs 27 June to 6 July 2014 at the Mercury Cinema
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