THE BIRTHDAY TRIP Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: James Robert Woods
Stars: Ben Gerrard, Luke Jacobz, David Quirk, Annalise Hall, Nicola Frew, Josephine Starte, Robert Preston, Sapphire Blossom.
Fifteen years after graduating from their elite private school three former female friends head off for a retreat at a corporate owned farm stay in the picturesque southern highlands of New South Wales. They are mainly gathering to celebrate their thirtieth birthdays. The cracks in their relationships begin to show.
Claire Lapsley-Smith (Nicola Frew, from The Daughter, etc) has organised the getaway. She is an artist who is between exhibitions, and she is accompanied by her partner Jim (stand-up comic David Quirk), who is a writer of corporate jingles. Also attending the getaway is filmmaker Angie Olsson (Josephine Starte) and her partner Lars Jansen (Luke Jacobz, from tv series Home And Away, etc), who works in finance; Isabel McDonald (Annalise Hall in her film debut), who has just begun to work as a content creator with the ABC, and her uptight and conservative partner Mark (Ben Gerrard, from The Fall Guy, etc), who works in the weapons manufacturing industry, building and designing drones.
The couples are greeted at the retreat by Felix Doyle (Robert Preston), their eccentric “experience curator”, who has an awkward and vaguely unsettling presence. Felix’s presence allows for a contrast between the well-off guests and his down-to-earth nature; but there is also the marked contrast between the lavish accommodation for the guests and his own messy, cluttered and dilapidated cottage located within the grounds of the sprawling property. The rundown condition of his house is a source of tension between Felix and his long-suffering wife Sapphire (Sapphire Blossom).
The couples drink a lot, eat a lot, and talk a lot. They also get to temporarily experience the rustic life of rural NSW, including witnessing the shooting of a sick horse. But their friendship is tested by a number of personal issues, insecurities and jealousies, and minor conflicts erupt over the course of the week-long retreat.
A gathering of friends that turns sour is a familiar premise, but unfortunately here the gathering never goes anywhere of interest. There is no real sense of tension, urgency or compelling drama.
This low budget independently produced black comedy marks the feature directorial debut for James Robert Woods, who has also written, shot and edited the film. I felt that the material needed another set of eyes to tighten the material and add some pizzaz to the awkward and stilted sounding dialogue. Even Woods’ cinematography is pretty bland, although he does a good job of capturing the natural beauty of the setting. Woods employs a lot of jerky handheld camera work to try and add a sense of energy to the material. But the only time the film seems to come alive is during the climactic sequence when Felix finally snaps in dramatic fashion.
Woods has obviously been influenced by films including the classic reunion film The Big Chill, the tv series The White Lotus and Rueben Ostland’s black comedy The Triangle Of Sadness with its examination of class issues and privilege.
The performances from the ensemble cast are fine without being showy, but most of the characters come across as selfish, shallow and pretentious. When compared to the recent The Invite, with its incisive dialogue and well-drawn characters, The Birthday Trip falls short and fails to really connect with the audience.
★★
