Look Both Ways

Stars: William McInnes, Justine Clarke, Andrew S Gilbert, Lisa Flanagan, Anthony Hayes, Andreas Sobik

Director: Sarah Watt

God what a miserable film. Despite the title it has, this happy little number from Australia could have been called Checking Out, since it deals exclusively in death, pain and unhappiness.

Opening with a man run over by a train, the film introduces its characters. Nick (McInnes), whose father came to a painful end, learns that he himself has testicular cancer. Mary (Clarke), a painter who witnessed the train tragedy, and whose own father has just died, sees death and disaster everywhere.

Andy (Hayes), who works with Nick on a newspaper, learns that his aboriginal girlfriend (Flanagan) is pregnant; though estranged from his wife and two kids, he considers suicide. Meanwhile the train driver (Sobik) is overwhelmed by grief, and Nick's editor resolves to quite smoking and see more of his family.

Occasional humorous lines - 'W're gonna stay here,' Andy tells his children at a museum, 'till we get a grain of knowledge' - are more than welcome, while continuity hounds will chortle at the scene where Nick is shown pulling on socks and in the next is seen running without them.

Stay tuned for the credit song, Somebody's Suffering More Than You. No, I don't think so.

David Quinlan

Australia 2005. UK Distributor: Tartan. Fujicolor.
100 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 20 Aug 2006