THE ROOSTER reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Mark Leonard Winter
Stars: Hugo Weaving, Phoenix Raei, John Waters, Rhys Mitchell, Robert Menzies.
Acclaimed actor Mark Leonard Winter (The Dressmaker, etc) makes his feature film directorial debut with this bleak and challenging character study about two broken men who form an unlikely connection. The Rooster explores themes of mental illness, men’s health, masculine frailty, suicide and loneliness. Partially inspired by the suicide of a close friend, Winter has drawn on personal experience to shape this unsettling story of male vulnerability and friendship.
Dan (Phoenix Raei, from the tv series The Heights, etc) is a smalltown policeman who is following in the footsteps of his father. He is stationed at a satellite police station in rural Victoria. He lives alone and each day he fights with his aggressive pet rooster as he attempts to feed it. He is also given over to unsettling nightmares featuring his rooster and a naked woman.
Dan is shaken up by the suicide of his deeply disturbed childhood friend Steve (Rhys Mitchell), who was found in a shallow grave. Steve had suffered from mental health issues, but Dan had done little to find help for him. In an attempt to find answers about the reasons for his suicide, Dan takes time off from work to try and process his feelings. He ventures into the bush and turns to alcohol to deaden his own emotional pain.
It is there that he stumbles upon the cabin inhabited by the reclusive, eccentric, volatile, foul-mouthed and alcoholic Mit (Hugo Weaving), who was the last person to see Steve alive. Despite a rather volatile beginning in which Mit drives Dan off with a shotgun, an unlikely friendship develops between these two men who share feelings of guilt, loneliness and shame. Mit begins each new day crowing like a rooster to celebrate the fact that he is still alive. The titular rooster becomes a metaphor for life in this drama.
Winter’s direction is slow and deliberate as he brings a contemplative tone to the material. A rather solemn mood permeates the film, which lacks energy. There is a surreal touch with a ghostly-looking choir emerging out of the hazy sunlight, singing as they walk through the forest. There are also several repetitive scenes of the forest and the two men playing table tennis, sitting around a campfire and sharing their feelings that fail to drive the narrative forward. Winter uses uncomfortable silences to underscore the emotional heft of these two damaged men as they navigate their way towards a healing process and a deeper understanding of the way their lives have played out.
An actor himself, Winter knows how to work with actors, and he gives his two leads the space to develop their characters and create a synergy. For much of the time this is a two-handed drama with Weaving and Raei bouncing off each other, and one can almost imagine the material being translated for the stage at some future point. The always reliable Weaving as usual is superb with a larger than life, rambunctious performance as the damaged Mit and his presence elevates the film when needed. Raei brings a more introspective and restrained quality to his performance as the troubled Dan. And veteran John Waters contributes a brief appearance as Norris, a detective colleague, but he is given little to do.
The Rooster was shot on location around Hepburn Springs where Winter lives with his family. The film is atmospheric, and cinematographer Craig Barden (Nowhere Boys, etc) makes the most of the locations. He juxtaposes the wide-open forest location with the claustrophobic and ramshackle interior of Mit’s small and cluttered cabin. The production design from Ben Bangay (tv series Playing For Keeps, etc) is very good. Stefan Gregory’s score is quite evocative.
However, The Rooster is not an easy film to watch and many in the audience may find it too confronting or unsettling.
★★☆
