Lost legend’s sort-of love story
Wednesday, 8.30pm, Rialto Premiership Winner, Dally M Medallist, Origin Legend. But former North Sydney Bear Ben Kelly (Steve Le Marquand) has fallen on hard times.
An addiction to pokies has seen him pawn off his trophies, trade away his dignity and all but use up every last ounce of goodwill among the townsfolk.
Even when Cec (Max Cullen) offers him a pie and bed for the night, he’s mistrusting of his motives, insisting repeatedly that he’s ‘‘not going to suck your sausage roll’’.
And although he does eventually accept the offer to stay with the old man and his daughter, Ben’s ‘‘No.1 fan’’, Terri (Claire van der Boom), he repays them by stealing anything that isn’t nailed down and attempting to sell it off.
That doesn’t get far though and a date with another kind of ‘‘pokey’’ looms large, unless Ben can change his ways.
While the sporting metaphors are sometimes a little too overt and the repudiation of the idea that footballers should be role models a bit too strident, there’s a compelling, charming tale at the heart of this low-fi, low-key 2016 Aussie drama. A gritty, sortof love story that reminds one of a cross between Leaving Las Vegas and the work of Ken Loach. - James Croot
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