Monday, July 30, 2018

Breath

I couldn't face seeing only 1 movie on the first day of the 2018 Film Festival so booked into the movie  after the one I wanted to see.  I had only read a brief write up about this one, sometimes it is better to be surprised.  Breath is set in the 1970s and is based on the Tim Winton novel of the same name.  It is the story of two small town Australian boys, Pikelet and his mate Loonie who discover the magic of surfing at the local beaches.  Here they meet and befriend Sando, an older guy who they find out was a bit of a surfing  legend in the past, but is now living the quiet life with his wife and dog.  He takes the boys under his wing, and challenges them to test their fear.

Most of the movie feels like a coming of age boys version of Puberty Blues, I am not sure about the adult themed turn it took in the last 1/3, it kind of turned it into something more seedy than the start and wouldn't be something that you would put on for the kids.  Lots of the casual 70s Aussie dialogue did make us laugh, words and phrases I haven't heard in decades and the chopper bikes brought back memories of my brother and his friends racing around.  I just wasn't sold on this movie, somehow there wasn't much magic in it for me even though there were some lovely isolated beaches on show.  3/5

2 comments:

sallyhicks said...

I know you love music but I wonder if you are too young to love the ones I do. I am watching a film on Rod Stewart. I love him but then Clarence Frogman Henry, Iggy pop Elivis were my favourites. When I was 10 I used to listen to an hour of songs like A bridle hanging on the wall, Old Shep and would spend an hour in bed listening and sobbing.

John Bellen said...

It sounds like they tried to make two movies out of one, and weren't successful.