TEN EMPTY

SYNOPSIS:
A decade ago, following his mother's tragic death after a period of mental illness, Elliot Christie (Daniel Frederikson) left his suburban Adelaide home and went to Sydney. His father, Ross (Geoff Morrell), has married his mother's sister Diane (Lucy Bell) and his younger brother Brett (Tom Budge) has stopped talking, withdrawing to his room. The 29-year-old Elliot is coming back to be Godfather to his new half-brother, Diane's son. But the tensions between Elliot and his father, compounded by Brett's mental health crisis, turn the weekend into a powder keg of repressed guilt, conflict and fear of what's happening to Brett.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
With the opening credits, we see a plane arriving and soon we’re in a small car with Elliot (Daniel Frederikson) and his step-mother Diane (Lucy Bell). They are half way from Adelaide airport to the suburban Christie home before Elliot turns to the bassinette on the back seat and notes the existence of Diane’s baby. If this is deliberate, it suggests that Elliot has so little regard for his stepmother and his half brother he hasn’t seen fit to acknowledge the little gurgler until now. But it isn’t directed to show that, so we are left to consider it an unintentional cinematic boo-boo. It’s not a good start.

The story unfolds in fits and starts as Elliot is first the butt of his father’s ongoing enmity and later the potential saviour of the family’s dysfunction. For starters, Sydney seems to have knocked the beer drinking out of Elliot, who, after refusing several brands of beer including his father’s own home brew, declares he mostly drinks red. Ross (Geoff Morrell) is so daft as to suggest one of the Red beers, forcing Elliot to explain. These early scenes establish the gulf dividing these two men, and the screenplay then moves to show the divide between all the characters in the house, from young disturbed brother Brett (Tom Budge) to Diane the undemanding, long-suffering second wife who puts up with the drinking and the bluster. All kinds of questions are raised by the arrangements, starting with why a baby now? And why ask Elliot to be Godfather if the relationship is in so poor shape?

The ten empty canvases stacked in the room around Brett are silent testament to a failed treatment for their mentally ill mother. They become signboards when Brett finally cracks.

But the real theme battling to get traction is the father/son relationship; this is set in such disturbed and damaging a household that the theme is not really relevant, except to this particular family. The story is filled out with incidental characters and relationships that seem to be there for colour and effect - like Blazey Best’s Bernadette, who has a quickie with Elliot shortly after his return, and Jack Thompson’s bar tending family friend, Bobby. But Bernadette is about the only interesting character in the film; we don’t have to like the screen characters in a film like this, but they do need to hold our interest so we care about them … or at least about one of them.

Notwithstanding, the writers have a great ear for genuine dialogue and the entire cast responds with relish to the lines. Performances are great, but they are restrained by the writing. Consequently the film ends up more like a workshop for actors than a satisfying drama for audiences. I am not even sure who those audiences are ...