"The Guide"

The Courier Mail

Oct 9, 2003

Comedy crime caper

Australian films have not done well at the box office recently but a new movie made on the Gold Coast could have an impact, writes Michael Bodey.

It’s no secret that the Australian film industry has had a dog of a year at the box office. Things have flopped and previous audience favourites have been ignored.

Two more Australian films try their luck before Christmas and thankfully the first, ‘Gettin’Square’, has a chance to make an impact.

The crime caper is slickly made, has plenty of laughs and possesses a cast of familiar faces including Gary Sweet (Stingers), Freya Stafford (White Collar Blue), Englishman Timothy Spall (Sex & Lies, Topsy-Turvy), Sam Worthingon (Dirty Deeds) and comedy veteran Ugly Dave Gray.

It also features a stand-out performance by “SeaChange” favourite, David Wenham, as Johnny Spitieri, the junkie with a heart of gold.

It is a comedic turn that will win him another AFI Award and it deserves an audience, but in this environment, who knows? The actors certainly don’t.

“I can say quite confidently that the people I’ve spoken to, as the Americans say, have ‘responded to the material’,” Wenham smiles.

“You sort of have a feeling but whether that translates to bums on seats, I don’t know.”

His co-star, Worthington, who plays Barry, a Gold Coaster wanting to go straight while fresh out of prison, is similarly flummoxed.

“The movies that are coming out are still good quality, I don’t know why people aren’t watching them, it’s just the way of the world,” he says.

“We enjoyed doing it so I hope people sense that when they watch it.”

Wenham understands that many Australian films aren’t accepted by audiences unless they’ve “supposedly” garnered some attention internationally – and often that can be orchestrated.

“It’s madness because you look at all the different elements here, from actors to directors to cinematographers, I hate using that term world-class, but we have a disproportionate representation internationally, in all those areas.”

‘Gettin’ Square’ is one of those “world-class” films. It had to be such considering the financial backing coming from England’s Working Title studio, the company behind ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ and ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’.

And Wenham and Worthington are at the heart of this world-class film. Both actors are firing on all cylinders at the moment; Wenham internationally with the final ‘Lord of the Rings’ film and the action blockbuster, ‘Van Helsing’, due in the next year, Worthington with lead roles in local flicks ‘Thunderstruck’ and ‘More Than Scarlet’ to add to his part in Miramax’s upcoming World War II drama, ‘The Great Raid’.

The two are a terrific coupling in ‘Getting’ Square’, Worthington as the stoic bloke drawn into one last heist and Wenham the bumbling idiot who might derail it all.

For Worthington it’s a major lead role, although he chuckles that he didn’t consider it such “but people keep saying it is! I thought it was an ensemble thing”.

Indeed, his lead role is upstages by Wenham’s performance. Not that Worthington is annoyed.

“The bloke’s wearing a mullet, pants up to his neck, thongs and leopard skin underpants, so if the bloke’s not stealing the movie there’s a problem with the movie,” Worthington smiles.

“He’s my Jerry Lewis and I was his Dean Martin. The more he did, he’d whisper to me ‘Do you reckon it’s too much?’ and I’d go ‘Keep going, keep going’ because the less I had to do then,” he laughs.

For Wenham, the chance to work again with his ‘Better Than Sex’ director Jonathan Teplitzky was reason enough to head to the Gold Coast.

“He’s one of the few people who can quite clearly articulate the kind of film they want to make,” Wenham says. “Some directors say they can but they don’t or can’t but Jonathan genuinely can.”

Teplitzky’s articulation worked for Worthington as well. “He’s detailed and so enthusiastic about what he wanted to do that he made me think if he can bring that to the set, it’ll be fantastic.

“He told me the movies he was inspired by and one of them was ‘Out of Sight’, which sold me. If he could do half as good a job as that, we’re doing all right.”

Teplitzky knew how to interest Wenham: he gave him the script telling him there was a character in there he might like.

Wenham, correctly, veered to Johnny Spitieri. “Jonathan thought that possibly from his knowledge of some of my earlier theatre work,” Wenham smiles.

It’s a big leap from the charismatic Diver Dan character for which Wenham won a Silver Logie and also from his more dramatic film characterizations.

Not that he was looking for a comedy to break things up.

“It’s impossible to orchestrate a career like that,” he says. “A lot of it’s left to luck.”

“I was attracted to him because I saw it as a huge challenge, number one.

“He’s someone who’d normally be perceived as one of society’s outcasts.

“Yet in this film he had to be understood by the audience and then have the audience on side so they’d go along for the journey, which is no easy task considering he does happen to be a junkie.

“That was the challenge, to humanize and empathise with this character. I also saw the opportunity for a bit of humour, although that’s not the motivating factor.”

Worthington had just as tough a job, researching the life of a hardened prisoner. A number of ex-cons who worked on the film as extras told him something that colours his character wonderfully.

“They said the biggest thing when you’re inside, the only thing you’ve got, is time,” he says.

“That’s the only thing you have. So when you’re outside you can afford to take your time. So I adopted that.”

Now the time has come when the Australian audience has to find ‘Getting’ Square’.

At least Wenham, Worthington and their cohorts have done everything in their power to make it a more palatable experience than most recent Australian films.