Unfinished Sky (2007) Reviews

• Wake in Fright - You're in Wolf Creek

  Philby-32008-07-15

  Yet another small Australian movie made with government money with lots of outback (or at least country) photography featuring laconic Aussie blokes (or one anyway) faced with something strange and sinister. Its origins are in fact Dutch – it is a re-make by Peter Duncan ("Passion" and "Children of the Revolution") of a 1998 Dutch film "The Polish Bride". Sheepfarmer John (William McInnes) has his solitary breakfast interrupted by the arrival of Tahmeena (Monic Hendrickx), a distraught woman who speaks no English. As he suspects she might be an illegal immigrant he takes her in and attempts to communicate with her. He also happens to hear of the disappearance of a cleaner from the pub in the nearby town. Without giving too much away, he finds some longstanding local acquaintances of his have been up to no good, and this leads up to a suspenseful climax. One common complaint about Australian films is the weakness of the scriptwriting. The writers here have given us some very spare dialogue. Tahmeena speaks only her own language and John doesn't speak much anyway. But both main characters have interesting back stories which are revealed gradually through the film. I'm not sure about the ending – there are one or two loose ends flapping about, but it's reasonably upbeat. William McInnes is just superb as farmer John, a man just going through the motions of existence before the exotic Tahmeena arrives at his place, and then jolted into caring for someone again. As an actor he has a good range – compare this performance with the rugged urban type he played in "Look Both Ways" a couple of years ago. Monic Hendrickx, playing 10 years later the same role as she did in "The Polish Bride", is completely convincing as the desperate refugee. David Field as the local cop also gives a good performance and I also must mention Elvis the dog, one of the more personable canines seen on screen lately. This struck me as a reasonably commercial film, like "Wolf Creek" and I'm not sure why one of the TV networks wouldn't have made something like this. There's a story, suspense, good acting, and plenty of gum trees. As an art house movie release, it's not going to get a big audience.

  More

• Whoah! This one really packs a punch

  jgmcghie2009-11-01

  I'm a sucker for romance. No, I didn't give Legally Blonde a ten, but I'm pretty tragic: I watched Notting Hill three times. That's what I thought I was getting this time. I was wrong. I recorded this, and it was a few months until I got around to watching it. It helps if you don't know that it's a remake: but by now, you do. Or of what... If you've seen the other movie, you can watch this one too: trust me, you have NOT seen it before! When I watched it, I didn't know it was a re-make; I didn't even know it was Australian. I take the point of the poster who said this is two stories compressed into the one movie: it is. He believes that's over-doing it. I respectfully disagree: in Australia, we often find the "one idea" Hollywood treatment of a story quite unsatisfying. This movie had me in from the opening scenes. It's one of the few movies I wouldn't pause to take a phone call. That's my highest accolade, and this one earns it. Notice the high ratings the Australian posters are giving it? That's not entirely because we like our own films. It's also because this has an authenticity that is utterly compelling, if you happen to speak Australian. If you do speak Australian, you will realise that the power of this story is in what is NOT said. Which tends to be the way rural Australians communicate! Outback Australia really is like this: particularly the north of the country.

  More

• Well done

  nanapeaches2008-03-04

  Interesting concept. It was quite well acted, it had captivating cinematography at times, and I found it entertaining, humorous, and humane. Overall a good, solid movie without the usual boring script. I was surprised, as I usually find independent movies a total hit or miss experience. This one, shockingly, had a clear ending with only a minimal cheesy factor :) I vacillated between feeling compassion for the characters and respect for the director/script writer. I would whole heartedly recommend the watching of this movie and look forward to see how other individuals react. I would be interested in knowing if there was an alternate ending to the movie.

  More

• Not Your Everyday Hollywood Remake

  Seamus28292008-07-27

  Normally, I tend to avoid re-made films like the plague. I had no prior knowledge that 'Unfinished Sky' was a Australian re-make of a 1998 Dutch film entitled 'The Polish Bride',about two damaged souls being thrown together by chance. In this case, it's about a sheep farmer who finds a wounded Afghan woman on his property,who has escaped from a life most nasty (she was brought into the country as an illegal alien to work in the sex industry). Little by little, the lives of the two begin to come together,despite the fact that neither speak the others language. Despite this, they overcome the usual obstacles. The film does manage to gloss over some details about the woman (actually played by the same actress that played in the Dutch original),but does wear it's heart on it's sleeve,rather nicely. As this film has no U.S. distributor, it may be a bit of a find. Worth taking a look at (especially if you've seen the original version).

  More

• The Afghan bride

  jotix1002009-12-24

  When Australia cinema decide to make good films, no one can beat them! Not only are their stories inspired, but they make excellent movies. Take Peter Duncan's "The Unfinished Sky", which we were fortunate to catch recently. This film and Ray Lawrence's satisfying "Jindabyne" are two of the best movies that have come out form Down Under lately. Mr. Duncan, who is also the adapter of the original Dutch film, "The Polish Bride", written for the screen by Kees Van Der Hulst, transferred the story to Australia's Queensland, a great idea because of the type of farmers that live isolated lives in that area of the country. John Woldring, a lonely widower, lives in his sheep farm. He blames himself for the death of his wife, who evidently has died in an accident, but John feels he killed her. When John spots a battered and wounded woman running near his house, he goes out to see what's going on. He is shocked by what he sees because she has been given quite a beating. In spite of turning her to the police, John keeps her home. The stranger is deeply traumatized. The local police officer comes to inquire whether John has seen the fleeing woman. John lies because even though he doesn't know the circumstances that made the woman run away from an unknown situation. To make matters worse, this wounded stranger speaks no English. When he shows her a map, she points to Afghanistan as to the country she came from. That makes it almost impossible for him to know what she is trying to communicate to him. Little by little she reveals her name, Tahmeena. She tries to illustrate what happened to her by drawing a sort of family tree in which someone's name shows an arrow that points in Australia's direction. John warms up to Tahmeena by giving her clothes from his late wife's closet. Tahmeena, in turn, begins to straighten out the mess John has made of the house. John resents Tahmeena's cleaning, but he realizes she wants to pull her weight. She hates his sausages, which she considers to be dog food. She wants to teach him to eat right! One thing John doesn't appreciate is the way Tahmeena figures how to solve an abandoned jigsaw puzzle depicting a blue sky with some clouds rests unfinished on a table. We figure this is something left from the time his wife was around; John just wants to cling to something from his former life. The secret John has been carrying with him is revealed, when the grateful parents of a young man John and Tahmeena have found wounded on the road pay a visit. They want him to come to a party they are giving, but he prefers to stay away. The couple tells him he can't go on grieving his wife forever because she had an accident and didn't kill her. Things come to a head one night when the owner of the pub in town and his son, who have suspected all along John is hiding the woman, come to get her. They are in for a surprise! The same goes for the local policeman, who is also part of the puzzle that got Tahmeena hurt. The real reason behind Tahmeena's beating becomes clear. The bad policeman has a lot to say about what really went on at the hotel. Peter Duncan's direction got excellent performances of the two stars. William McInnes plays the taciturn John Woldring with conviction. The same can be said of the understated performance of Monic Hendrickx, the original actress in the Dutch original. Both Mr. McInnes and Ms Hendrickx are the reason for watching this satisfying movie, which they make a winner. Robert Humphreys captures that part of Australia in vivid detail. The music score of Anthony Partos is another asset in the film.

  More