Never too late

Director: Mark Lamprell
Starring: James Cromwell, Jack Thompson, Dennis Waterman, Roy Billing, Shane Jacobson, Jacki Weaver, Renée Lim, Max Cullen, Zachary Wan
Distributor: Other
Runtime: 98 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2020

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Rating notes: Coarse language

James Cromwell, Jack Thompson, Dennis Waterman, Roy Billing, Shane Jacobson, Jacki Weaver, Renée Lim, Max Cullen, Zachary Wan. Directed by Mark Lamprell. 98 minutes. The title is obviously a signal that this is a story about old age. And, an unexpected story it is. While there are serious undertones, it all plays as pleasing comedy.

The setting is Adelaide, the city looking good at the end of the film. But the main location is Hogan Hills (Paul Hogan or Hogan’s Heroes or both), a retirement home. And, inside the home, is an entertaining cast. Jack Thompson gives an enjoyable performance as Angus, memory slipping, his denying it, always a mischievous sparkle in his eye. And, in a wheelchair, is Roy Billing as James, doing his familiar somewhat deadpan style, but always enjoyably. And, with an international touch, there is Dennis Waterman, migrated from the UK.

The main star is American James Cromwell (memories of the Babe films). At the opening, he is trying to infiltrate into the home, pretending to be incapacitated, but wanting to link with his comrades from 50 years earlier. So, an underlying theme is involvement in the Vietnam war, special squads train for break-ins and breakouts, who have experienced imprisonment and escape. Cromwell is Jack Brosnan, the leader come to involve his old friends in a 21st-century mission. Also in the home is Hank, played by Max Cullen, an old veteran on his last legs.

There is opening voice-over for the film spoken by Jacki Weaver who plays Norma, moving into Alzheimer’s, who worked as a nurse in Vietnam, had farewelled Jack Brosnan on the jetty, is going into action, but she had expected a proposal. Well, as the title says, never too late!

The old codgers, who have a good way with Aussie colloquialisms and larrikin style, have happy memories but also get tangled in their memories. And they find a new recruit for their exploits, a young lad from school who goes to the home each afternoon because his Vietnamese mother works there (Zachary Wan). He is eager for mischief. And he puts his talent for mischief to good use in helping the cause.

There is a complication because the head nurse, also Vietnamese, turns out to have a connection with the veterans through her father back in the day.

While the breakout happens, as we would expect, it doesn’t work out in the way that they had expected. They steal a hearse, go to a football match because James wants to reconnect with his son, Bruce, to whom he had written for years but whose response is “return to sender”. And Bruce turns out to be Shane Jacobson, shorts and singlet and off to the footy and AFL style barracking. It turns out that Angus had won the Brownlow medal in 1973 and it is on display. The Englishman has terminal cancer but has a yacht and would like to die on his yacht.

Will Norma be on the jetty? Will she be lost in Alzheimer’s? Will she remember the past? Will she get a proposal? Perhaps the title is a spoiler: never too late!