Paper Planes

Director: Robert Connelly
Starring: Sam Worthington, Ed Oxenbould, Deborah Mailman, David Wenham, Nicholas Bakapoulos-Cooke, Ina Imai, Terry Norris, Julian Dennison
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 94 mins. Reviewed in Feb 2015

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Rating notes:

This entertaining film has everything going for it. It is designed for a family audience and should be satisfying for everyone, parents and children. It is feelgood, generally pleasantly predictable, telling a good story, having interesting characters, a 12-year-old that many children could identify with, a theme of children’s activities, a competition, a touch of pre-adolescent romance, a snobby child villain… What more could we want?

The title indicates what the principal focus is, the making of paper planes (and some of us finding that it is far more complicated and creative that we might have thought, a variety of forms and shapes for the planes). In fact, during the titles, where shown the process of paper making – because the quality of the paper, its futures, its texture, are important for the shaping of the planes.

At the centre of all this is a 12-year-old, Dylan. He is played by the very talented Ed Oxenbould. He made his mark in television series, Underbelly and Puberty Blujes, credibly playing an American child as Alexander in the family comedy, Alexander and his Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day. It looks as if he has a very strong career ahead of him.

He lives at home with his father, Sam Worthington, who seems to have given up on life after the death, five months earlier, of his wife in accident. Dylan is the stronger in coping, missing his mother but acknowledging the truth of her death. His father mopes at home, lying down, leaving the television on with sport, unable to go to work. Dylan rides his bike to the local country primary school where the students are a mixture of white, ethnic, aboriginal. The teacher is played by Peter Rowsthorn, full of enthusiasm for the students and the classes (after he collects all their phones and devices before class) and encourages them when a visitor comes to talk to them about paper planes and gets them to test out their skills.(if you’re wondering where you saw Peter Rowsthorn before, he played Brett, the exceedingly put-upon husband of Kim in Kath and Kim.)

Dylan becomes enthusiastic about paper planes, qualifies to go to the finals, is helped by his mischievous friend, Kevin, with some explosive experiments, and visits his grandfather in a home for the elderly, a former pilot who takes Dylan to the flight museum and imagines some war action, helping Dylan to get ideas were his planes. His father does help him in showing him the winged keel for the America’s Cup in 1983, Dylan incorporating this into the design of his paper planes, also studying an eagle in-flight – he feeds the bird each day with a rasher of bacon.

The Australian finals are to be held in Sydney. Dylan’s father eventually drives him (something of a credibility gap for the audience since the film was photographed in Western Australia and they drive along a few dirt roads et cetera and then quickly arrive in Sydney!)

At the finals, presided over by a very exuberant former champion, Deborah Mailman, Dylan meets a young Japanese paper plane champion, Kim, and they become friends. Also present is a very caddish would-be champion, Jason (Nicholas Boukapolus-Cooke) and his father, played by David Wenham, a man who realises he has a very obnoxious child, who insists on calling him Patrick instead of dad, and who spouts a philosophy of winning is everything. There is some excitement as all the contestants fly their plane over a swimming pool.

As we anticipate, Jason and Dylan win the competition and travel to Tokyo for the world finals. Dylan works hard because he has no money, his teacher trying to take up a collection, his father having the idea of a garage sale, his grandfather and the ladies at the home providing cakes, lamingtons prominent, and they collect enough money for Dyland to go, but not his father. The key point is that his father does not want to sell his wife’s piano, she was a piano teacher, even though he is offered $3000 for it.

There is plenty of excitement in Tokyo, and the Tokyo tourist agency will not be disappointed at the presentation in the film. Kim is there. Dylan and Kim continue their friendship. Jason is also there and indulges in some bullying which means that Dylan might not be able to participate in the contest. But on the contest goes, Dylan adjusting his plane, remembering his mother who taught him to make the paper planes, the advice of his father and grandfather, the image of the eagle.

This is a very nice film, so happiness all round, including Dylan being very supportive of his father, Jason having some redemptive moments.

The film was co-written and directed by Robert Connelly who has had a strong career in the Australian film industry with producing and directing such films as The Bank, Three Dollars, Balibo and producing and directing a segment of the Tim Winton film, The Turning.

It is hoped that this film is popular not only in Australia but around the world.