Cheers Ben, I'd never posted on imdb before but really needed to get Look Both Ways off my chest. It's not the worst Australian product of recent years, but I felt it pretty mediocre, especially considering the praise heaped on it.
My small rant above was actually part of a larger rant I wrote after getting home from the Dendy's "extended season" presentation, which I might as well print in full:
"Remove the much lauded animated segments (which attempt to provoke emotional responses by SUDDENLY GETTING REALLY LOUD when the train crashes/shark bites/head explodes etc.) and you're left with a fairly twee story of tragedy and loss, shot in an equally uninspired manner. Justine Clark, William McInnes et all are all fine in one-note roles (Meryl is quirky but tearful, Nick is stoic but scared, Andy is selfish...), but their characters never get the chance to develop as the film insists on following up other B stories (Nick's editor in particular seems to have spent more time on the cutting room floor than in the projector - his "story arc" is confined to three vaguely suggestive lines of dialogue with his wife and two vague thousand-yard-stares). Even less developed are the other mini-tales of a grieving wife and a troubled father (with obligatory troubled son) which appear to exist only to give false weight to the film's spectacularly cliched "rain ties all together and cleanses all" finale, which only succeeds in making you pine for the falling frogs of Magnolia.
But worst of all Look Both Ways's mediocrities is the five long musical montages that punctuate the film, presumably when the writer/director decided that dialogue and direction was getting too much. One mournful pop song accompanied by close ups of emoting actors is probably to be excused or at least expected in this kind of film, especially when trying to tie a large number of characters together in a short screen time. Two montages is probably pushing it. By reaching five in a 100 minute film, Look Both Ways not only betrays its thin writing and directing, but may also qualify as some kind of extended music video. Perhaps an ARIA nomination might go well next to the AFI."
...Harsh words I know, but at least film provoked an emotional response (and my first attempt at a 'film review')! Regardless, hope you enjoy your next viewing.
Cheers,
MM
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