Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Gale Edwards
Stars: Sebastian Gregory, Colin Friels, Roy Billing, Isabel Lucas, William Zappa, Tammy MacIntosh.
This crowd-pleasing Australian production is set in the small sleepy fishing village of Montague. Kevin Flack (Sebastian Gregory) is a guitar obsessed teen who dreams of playing in a rock band. His ambitions run counter to his father (William Zappa0), who is the leader of the town’s municipal marching band and believes that Kevin’s interest in rock music is wasting his potential.
The town’s wily mayor Riddick (Colin Friels) is in bed with a major developer who wants to build a massive $50 million beachfront resort in the town. The only stumbling block to the ambitious development is the existence of the town’s marching band, which has a life long lease on the community hall. Riddick wants to bulldoze the community hall, but he can’t do that unless he can somehow get the band to disband. Riddick sees his chance when Kevin’s dad is struck by a bus and winds up in hospital.
But Kevin, feeling guilty over his role in the accident, reluctantly steps up to take charge of the band. He tries to get this bunch of old fogies ready for the major competition, a mere four weeks away, by injecting some youthful energy into their stale routine. If he fails, it will be a repeat of the humiliation the band suffered twenty years ago, when a downpour disastrously cost them the title. Ever since then the band has been a perennial runner up in the annual marching band competition. Can young Kevin turn an iconic pop song into a marching tune and give the town some inspiration and hope? There’s also a romance with Mandy (Isabel Lucas), who happens to be the mayor’s daughter, who also runs a local music store.
A Heartbeat Away is a relatively lightweight feel good musical comedy that seems like a home grown variation of Brassed Off, although some of the plot details also remind us of Baz Luhrmann’s classic Strictly Ballroom. The film deals with a number of big and potentially interesting themes, including the clash between generations and the redemptive and healing power of music.
The film features a gallery of quirky characters, played by an ensemble cast that includes veteran Roy Billing (from Underbelly, etc). Gregory has a likeable screen presence, but he seems drawn towards roles in films that explore the darker nature beneath the surface of suburbia (Acolytes, Beautiful, etc). His role here is a nice change of pace and he acquits himself well. Lucas seems bored here and is little more than eye candy. Tammy MacIntosh does a nice job as Kevin’s supportive mother, herself a gifted musician whose talents have previously been ignored.
A Heartbeat Away is the first film from Gale Edwards (acclaimed director of stage musicals such as The Boy From Oz and Sweeney Todd, and she also directed the filmed production of Tony Award winning play Aspects Of Love). Her efforts are let down slightly by the under developed and cliched script from first time writer Julie Kincade, a former Queensland equities dealer. There are a number of internal logic problems with the story that had many critics at the preview screening chortling in disbelief and wincing in embarrassment in equal measure. Some of the dialogue is banal and unintentionally laughable, and woodenly delivered.
A Heartbeat Away will cop some very negative reviews, but it’s not as bad as some reviewers will have you believe. If you’ve ever wanted to hear what Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit or the ‘60s classic Macarthur Park ever sounded like when played by a brass band, then this is the movie for you!
★★★
