The Road From Coorain (2001/TV Movie/Acorn Media DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D Telefilm: C+
Coming of
age stories are not easy and when they are set in the past, they can get caught
up in being a period piece and forget the character development or just become
melodramatic by default because they lend themselves to time and opportunity
missed. Brendan Maher’s Road To Coorain (2001) is an Australian
TV movie that tells the story of Jill Ker Conway growing up in New South Wales duri9ng
the 1930s.
Juliet
Stevenson (Bend It Like Beckham, Mona Lisa Smile) is Eve, the mother of
the family dealing with drought, drama and much more. Their father Bill (Richard Roxburgh of Mission: Impossible III, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and
the Blue Murder mini-series) is also
a good provider, but life in the outback can be very rough, especially at that
time. That is the strength and weakness
of the telefilm. I liked the acting,
placement and some moments, but too much of it was what we had seen before and
the makers keep it short enough at 97 minutes.
Still, it is an ambitious project and if you are interested, worth a
look.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is much softer than I expected for a recent production,
for whatever reason and we get Australian product in (imports included) so this
did surprise me. The locations are still
nice though. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo is better, recorded well enough for its age, but is a quiet
soundtrack. Extras include text bio of Conway and text
filmography of Stevenson.
- Nicholas Sheffo
