Director Sarah Spillane
Starring Christina Ricci, Matt Nable, Daniel Henshall & Hunter Page-Lochard
Rated M
Score 4.5/6

An Aboriginal boy becomes torn between his unexpected love of acting and the disintegration of his family. Meanwhile his high school drama teacher must practice what she teaches if she is to succeed in her personal and professional life.

I don’t even vaguely remember seeing a preview for this one at any of the friendly local neighbourhood cinemas. So I really had no clear idea of what I was getting myself into when I brought this DVD. I am very unfamiliar with director Sarah Spillane’s work considering that according to her filmography this is only the second feature length movie that she has directed, I am going to have to make a note to check her other movie This Life.
A few of the familiar faces that you would expect to see in any Australian movie surfaced in the shape of Damian Walshe-Howling, Matt Nable and Jack Thompson.
I was particularly impressed with Hunter Page-Lochard’s performance and his delivery of a monologue from Hamlet.
Maybe it’s the cynic in me but there seems to be very little that can be done that is new with a movie that deals with an inspirational teacher/student relationship in a movie, probably because most of it has already be done before and for that matter will continue to be done in the future.
But with the way that Spillane used Shakespeare and by setting her movie during the 2004 Redfern riots in my mind made Around the Block very watchable.