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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 29 October 2012
This a movie review of THE SAPPHIRES. |
“Do you sing anything else apart from country and western sh*te?” Dave Lovelace (Chris O'Dowd)
DREAMGIRLS, THE HELP, Aussie dramedy THE SAPPHIRES falls into their subgenre; but it is not in that league thanks to a duff script. The actors are game, and the budget is marshalled to create backdrop war scenes elevating proceedings to a grander feel. What lets the players and the audience down is the lumpen dialogue. Words fall out of the actors’ mouths like lead weights, clanging all around us in wince-inducing fashion.
DREAMGIRLS, THE HELP, Aussie dramedy THE SAPPHIRES falls into their subgenre; but it is not in that league thanks to a duff script. The actors are game, and the budget is marshalled to create backdrop war scenes elevating proceedings to a grander feel. What lets the players and the audience down is the lumpen dialogue. Words fall out of the actors’ mouths like lead weights, clanging all around us in wince-inducing fashion.
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1968, Australia, the credits have cliché stock footage of Kennedy, Mohammed Ali, etc. to set the period. In a country backwater riddled with racism, three Aboriginal sisters enter a pub singing contest and are over-looked for a talentless, acceptable local. On MCing duty is O’Dowd’s Dave – turning up the charm dial to 11 – who retains his accent, thankfully for anyone who had to sit through FRIENDS WITH KIDS. The sisters, Julie (Jessica Mauboy), Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), are suitably delineated due to savvy casting. They convince him to help them to impress the American military selection board, visiting Melbourne, who are looking for singers to entertain the troops in Vietnam. The sisters enlist a fourth member of the group, Kay (Shari Sebbens), their estranged cousin. We get by-the-number hurdles until landing in the thick of war newly named The Sapphires.
They exude sass and fiery belligerence. Their backstories all demonstrate bruising – showing they have the curriculum vitae to deliver soul music. The audience is given demos of injustice without going too dark, by always having an eye on attempting to entertain. THE SAPPHIRES is ungainly in execution. Had the filmmakers taken a few more passes at the banter, and dialled back the sentimentality, they might have had a little crowd-pleaser.
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