Seriously Red review – Australian comedy puts Dolly Parton tribute-act centre stage
This Australian movie is a colourful comedy of romance and finding yourself, and it’s clearly a personal project for its writer-star Krew Boylan. I sat down to it hoping for something like Muriel’s Wedding, the film that first introduced us to Toni Collette but unfortunately, there’s something a bit frantic and narcissistic about it: a film that doesn’t quite convince you to care enough about its characters or what they care about.
Red, played by Boylan, is a young woman who is employed in an estate agent’s office and pretty hopeless at the job because, in her goofy and adorable way, her real passion is Dolly Parton: imitating her, studying her and obsessing over her. She’s also a bit self-conscious about being redheaded and flat-chested. But Red finds herself hanging out at a drag/impersonation club, presided over by “Elvis Presley” (a rather self-aware Rose Byrne), where she gets to try out her Dolly act. Before too long, her Dolly avatar is a hit, and she has a double act with “Kenny Rogers” (Daniel Webber) with whom she becomes romantically involved in real life.
Everything seems to be going great. But this business of pretending to be someone or something you’re not: is it liberating and exciting? Or basically just a bit pathetic, no matter how technically good you are at it? This film doesn’t quite decide on an answer to that question and Red’s alternative role-model destiny of selfaffirmation, perfunctorily unveiled just before the closing credits, is frankly unconvincing. There’s a good-sport cameo from Dannii Minogue, playing a Dannii Minogue impersonator, but this is a film that is trying very hard to be liked, while at the same time complacently assuming its likeability is beyond question.
Seriously Red is released on 13 February on digital platforms.