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Siam Sunset
Threat advisory: Severe - Severe risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
In the battle between man and the universe... back the universe.
Perry's (Linus Roache) perfect life creating colours for an English paint company has become a world of pain. After the tragically bizarre death of his wife, he has escaped on a bus ride to central Australia, in search of a special colour called Siam Sunset and some relief from the natural disasters that mysteriously pursue him.
Persons of interest
- Linus Roache .... Perry
- Danielle Cormack .... Grace
- Ian Bliss .... Martin
- Roy Billing .... Bill Leach
- Alan Brough .... Stuart Quist
- Rebecca Hobbs .... Jane
- Terry Kenwrick .... Arthur Droon
- Deidre Rubenstein .... Celia Droon
- Peter Hosking .... Roy Wentworth
- Victoria Eagger .... Rowena Wentworth
- Robert Menzies .... Eric
- Eliza Lovell .... Michelle
- Heidi Glover .... Stephanie Droon
- Lachlan Standing .... Ben Wentworth
- Esme Melville .... Dot
- Choung Dao .... Mr Nguyen
- Alan Lovell .... Stan Porter
- Max Dann .... Screenwriter
- Andrew Knight .... Screenwriter
- John Polson .... Director
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
Har! Har! Har!
Siam Sunset is a brilliantly dark romantic farce comedy drama that pokes more sticks in more eyes than anything I have seen in a long time. You know you're witnessing a classic when combination fridge/freezers start falling out of the sky.
The best thing about Siam Sunset is that it's made in Australia. If it were made in America, it would star Chevy Chase. It wouldn't be made anywhere else. There are more stereotypes than you can poke a stick at... and the thing is that they're meant to be there! Like every good Australian film, this one picks up a stick and rattles it against the cage door. At the same time as you laugh at the crappiest polyester-wearing white trash this side of the black stump, you laugh with them, and you remember them... and maybe you even are them!
You haven't lived until you've seen a bright blue polyester tracksuit.
*Shudders*
By switching between genres Siam Sunset keeps you on your toes... that and the incredible pain of seeing dinky-di true-blue fair-dinkum Aussies on the big screen.
*Shudders*
The unending list of miseries that befalls Perry is Jobian in its relentlessness but nothing like that other jobesque film, Commandments. Each misfortune is funnier than the last, each death, accident, act of the goddess is more heart-rending. But like any good dark romantic farce comedy drama, Siam Sunset binds the two paths - comedy and tragedy - until you couldn't separate them with a stick. Even a really big one.
John Polson's direction is great: he is deeply aware of the clichés that riddle the industry and plays against them in a brilliantly original way. He also manages to scratch his own name in the dirt with a stick. The actors all walk the fine line between the 2nd and 3rd characteristical dimensions: they are both parody and reality. The lovely Linus (looking astonishingly like John) takes to his role like a dog to a stick: he is romantic hero, misfortune's fall guy, adventure king, whinging pom, legend and prat.
This film is so funny that I was forced to laugh out loud more times than you can poke a stick at. He also managed to enjoy the ending. And the romance. And the polyester. Well, maybe not the polyester.
If you want a film that's so good that you'll want to see it again when it comes out on film, then Siam Sunset is the perfect film for you. You'd be a dipstick if you don't go and see it.
Security censorship classification
M (Medium level violence, medium level coarse language, adult themes)
Surveillance time
92 minutes (1:32 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 24 March 2000
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