Film Reviews

Look Both Ways

• Rating:
• Director: Sarah Watt
• Starring: Anthony Hays
• Details: Australia / 100mins (12A).

Writer/director Sarah Watt allows us a quick look at death and the possibility of it during an exceptionally hot weekend in a built up city. Kooky artist Meryl (Clarke) imagines death everywhere she goes. Whether it's a train collapsing on her or a crushing car crash (which we see through animation), Meryl comes across as a clinically depressed Walter Mitty. Nick, a photographer for a local newspaper, has just being diagnosed with cancer and he has no clue how to deal with it; writer Andy (Hays), who is already unhappy with his lot in life, hears that his girlfriend is pregnant and it sends him into a downward spiral. This would have all being fine and dandy if Watt centred on these three but she tries to cover too much ground, spreading out to include bit stories of a train driver who ran over a man or the editor of the newspaper who tries to give up cigarettes. Watt could have cropped a few characters and given this crucial screen time over to her main protagonists. As a result, they never engage us; we can never get behind them because we know so little about them. Watt never attempts to answer the questions she raises and maybe that's her point. But why am I watching this then? What am I learning? What is Watt telling me that I don't know already? Not a hell of a lot as it turns out.

Review by Gavin Burke