Summers flawed but weathers it
Robert Sheehan, Rebecca Breeds, Magda Szubanski, Michael Caton If music be the food of love, play on. BEN Elton is savvy enough to know that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
But, when it comes to the multitalented writer-director’s new film Three Summers, he struggles to find just the right balance between cracking jokes and addressing the big issues.
Don’t get me wrong. He’s not so far off the mark that this amiable comedy about three consecutive years at a West Australian music festival (“Australia in a tent”, as one character calls it) completely comes off like a sociology lecture.
Rest assured, however, that when Three Summers wants to make a point it is not backwards in coming forwards, even if Elton is cluey enough to fold it neatly into the story or wrap it up in a gag.
And, let’s face it, a lot of the topics that Elton brings to the fore in his film — from indigenous recognition to asylum seekers — are worth considering and discussing.
Still, the more endearing and engaging parts of Three Summers are the more light-hearted ones, whether it’s Magda Szubanski providing a chirpy running commentary on events as an unflappable local radio announcer or the love-hate relationship between a pair of made-for-each-other musicians attending the festival.
The two musos are Roland (Robert Sheehan), a black-clad, self-serious chap who is very into the theremin — that should tell you pretty much all you need to know about him — and Keevey (Rebecca Breeds), a spirited violin prodigy seemingly squandering her gifts by playing with the folk band led by her alcoholic dad (John Waters).
The two are attracted to one another but also repulsed by the other’s stubbornness or self-righteousness. The will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic they share over the three summers they bump into one another is snappily written by Elton and sweetly played by the two appealing actors (former Home and Away star Breeds really shines here).
There’s also good work from Michael Caton and Kelton Pell as two men with contrasting views on who can call themselves real Australians, and a terrific comedic turn from Adriane Daff as a sweet-voiced singer who specialises in savage reworkings of classic Australian tunes.
But not everyone is as well-served. Some characters come off as strident or one-note.
Deborah Mailman, for instance, is too lively a screen presence to be stuck in the downer role of an AA counsellor trying to get Waters’ character to lay off the booze.
However, Elton deftly juggles the multiple storylines in such a way that Three Summers often offers just enough to attract and keep the audience’s attention before moving on to the next one, and his affection for the Australian attitude towards life is clearly evident.
It is a friendly, good-natured movie, one that wears its heart on its sleeve so proudly it is easy to forgive its few shortcomings or heavy-handed aspects. stage of the National Theatre. (Unrated, Pivotonian) Life, love, politics and tunes all come together in this endearingly daggy story centred around three consecutive years at an Aussie music festival. (M, Village)