Beautiful Kate

I got really curious about this film that collected numerous nominations at Australian awards and fests because one actress that always called my attention is Rachel Ward and her directing was something that I had to watch. Unfortunately even do has a very appealing cast the movie story is so common or maybe I should say, told so many times, that you easily guess what could happen plus really does not help to have transposed the story from the American West to the Australian outback, where life in the bush seems so tedious.

Based on a novel by Newton Thornburg with a screenplay also by Rachel, the film tells the story of a family that have past dark secrets and all come alive when the youngest son Ned, now a forty-something writer, comes back as his father is dying. Slowly one strand tells the present that honestly is not that interesting, while a second strand tells the past that definitively was more interesting. Perhaps this was a story to be told in chronological order and probably the film would have been a lot more interesting.

The cast couldn't be better with Ward's real life husband Bryan Brown and one actress I like in the big screen, Rachel Griffiths; but both performances are not their best at all. Other actors are not known to me and well, won't be looking forward to watch them in the future. I'm afraid that Ward's directorial abilities couldn't extract good performances from actors.

Cinematography is one element that the film has on the good side, especially with outdoor sights takes showing the dry -desert alike- Australian outback, but there are not many of those beautiful takes as most of the drama happens indoors or around the house.

Not a film I can recommend, but if you wish to watch a story of incest, family drama, and dysfunctional father-son relationship told in a blunt and awkward way, then you should give a try to this movie.

Sigh.

Watch trailer @Movie On Companion