Starring: Nathan Phillips, Angourie Rice, Jessica De Gouw, Lynette Curran, and Kathryn Beck.
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 87 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2014
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This is an Australian film about the approach of the end of the world. It was selected for screening at the “Directors’ Fortnight Section” in the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and it is set in Western Australia.
It is an apocalyptic thriller by an Australian writer-director that establishes quickly the anxiety and tension of people doomed to die. Earth is headed towards a catastrophic impact with a meteorite that is plummeting down to it. The meteorite is creating a tsunami of fire that is consuming the world and there is no chance of surviving. The events of the film span one final day.
James (Nathan Phillips) is in search of one last party and an ex-girl friend (Kathryn Beck) and he drives to them, leaving behind the mother-to-be of his child (Jessica De Gouw). On the way he meets a young girl, Rose (Angourie Rice), who is desperately looking for her father, and he decides to take her with him. He finally finds her father, but it is too late. Rose gives him advice to heed his responsibilities and return in the hours that remain to the person who really counts.
The film depicts the world savagely. The reaction of those facing the end is to murder in anger and self-defence, to suicide as the best way out, and to party with complete abandon using drugs to ease their pain.
There is a clear theme of redemption in the bonding of James and Rose, but it loses out most of the time to the desolation of spirit among those affected by the inevitable. The film is flawed morally, and contains many scenes that will offend. One such scene is where a deranged mother, looking for a surrogate daughter, forces Rose to take a drug, obviously preparatory to unspecified abuse, while distraught people cavort hedonistically around her. The film earns its censorship classification.
There are morally edifying themes tucked away in the movie, such as the force of “strength of life”, and the return to relationships that count, but they are few and far between. This is a film that depicts morally dubious territory, and it is very violent.
Technically, however, the film is impressive. The final scenes when disaster strikes stand tall with what other disaster movies have produced, and there are glimpses of humanity in them. The acting by James, his mother (Lynette Curran), and Rose is particularly convincing. The scenes between James and Rose, and between James and his mother, work especially well dramatically, and the film’s scripting gives maturity to an innocent child’s request.
Movies of this kind always raise questions about what would one do in the final hours. Hopefully, it is not what most (but not all) people in this movie have chosen to do. The film is filled with scenes of savagery, sex, and despair, and presents a bleak view with immediacy of a land and people in crisis. At times, the movie stands almost at the edge of the horror genre. Only the realism of its photography, the level of some of the acting, and the impact of its special effects manage to pull it back.
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