In the Outback, you Don’t mess with Molly
The Drover’s Wife: The Legend Of Molly Johnson (★★★★I, 15, 108 mins) is a pioneering Western in every sense: written, directed by and starring Leah Purcell as Molly, a crackshot mountain woman with a life tougher than her husband’s old boots.
Indeed, Molly’s missing husband, and the fact that an indigenous traveller is now wearing his boots, is key to a gripping, fast-moving and often violent story that contrasts with the beautiful Australian wilderness in the background. Purcell’s performance is superb, rooted deep in her First Nation ancestry, and her character’s determination to protect her four children at all costs.
She’s heavily pregnant at the start and toting a rifle. The other characters — a policeman, his British wife and some drovers — are sketchy, but Rob Collins as Yadaka, an Aboriginal man, brings an otherworldly power to the
drama.This turns the Outback back to front, from a woman’s point of view, and while, occasionally a modern phrase creeps in, the film reveals late 19th-century Australia at its most brutal — and poetic.
Firestarter ( ★★III, 15, 94 mins) slipped into cinemas without the usual fanfare that a Stephen King adaptation gets —
and that’s probably because the acting is so wooden it’s not surprising that a girl with superpowers can set anyone around
her on fire. Zac Ephron (who should stick to romcoms) plays
the father of Charlie McGee (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), a moody nine-year-old with psychic powers that get her whole family into trouble when a top-secret agency tries to kidnap her.
As the two go on the run, Charlie’s bursts of anger get incendiary — and at one point she unintentionally barbecues a pet cat.
That’s about the most shocking part of this damp squib film, which has a clunky, lumbering script which somehow never engages the audience’s emotions.
The music documentary A-ha — The Movie (★★III, 12A, 108 mins) is more of an ‘oh no’ experience. It charts the rise of the Norwegian pop-synth boy band whose hit, Take On Me, became a massive 1980s anthem.
They have sold 50 million records. Unfortunately, the boys are now grumpy old men, and still touring the same old songs. It’s creative purgatory for everyone.