CRIME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Filmink March 2004?

With the pithy, sparkling underworld saga GETTIN’ SQUARE, director JONATHAN TEPLITZKY proves that crime can really pay. FILMINK’s ERIN FREE gets the word from this exciting filmmaker as his acclaimed caper comedy makes its way to DVD.

Like most Australian films last year, Gettin’ Square failed to set fire to the box office. It did, however, achieve something just as important: it made a mark on those that saw it. Its glittering Gold Coast locations, funny yet darkly shaded depiction of a seedy criminal underworld, and its truly hilarious performance by David Wenham as a good natured but half witted junkie scumbag put the hook into viewers, and saw the film go on to snag a number of end-of-year awards. So while the immediate box office snare of Gettin’ Square might not have been big, it will definitely have a healthy second life on DVD, where it comes packed with all the bells and whistles: commentaries, Q&A’s, cast and crew interviews, featurettes and deleted scenes. For many of the film’s fans, however, this will be another chance to dig on David Wenham’s particular brand of inspired comic genius.

“As soon as I read the script, I said to David Wenham - who I had a very good experience with during Better Than Sex – that there was a role in the film that would be great for him,” Teplitzky says. “He read it and came on board. I always felt that to have him in that role would really surprise a lot of people, and I think he’s one of the best actors in the country. I just knew he would make it an individual character that no one else could do, because David really goes out there, and he really transcends all expectations. The directing that I had to with David was kind of casual in a way. It was very much part of the communication we’d built up between us, and was really about asking the question of whether we’d pushed the Johnny Spiteri character enough. It’s so easy to turn that character into a caricature, but it’s also easy to shy away from it, and to not be brave enough to say, ‘this is who the character is, let’s push it as far as we can’. Walking that fine line between being big enough and dramatic enough and entertaining enough was the real issue between us.”

David Wenham, however, is not the whole show. The cast is rounded out with some of this country’s best actors (Sam Worthington, David Field, Gary Sweet, John Brumpton) as well as well-placed Brit import and Mike Leigh regular Timothy Spall. “The first priority was to make sure we got good people for every role,” Teplitzky explains. “So often you cast a role for a character with 50 words or less, and they’re kind of weak. This is ultimately a character piece. The plot works in the film, but it’s certainly not what I enjoy most about it. So we were really insistent about casting it right. We flew people up from Melbourne just for really small roles. With David Field and Gary Sweet - both of whom are really just great actors – well, we just wanted them in the film. You know, David’s played a lot of bent cops, but probably not with the humour and swagger that he was able to play with here. David brought a lot of great stuff, and still made the baddie sympathetic.”

One of the snappiest features on the DVD is “Shady Speak”, which takes you through the
often terse and hilarious vernacular used by the crims in the film. The grit of the dialogue, and the way in which it rings true, largely comes down to one man: debut screenwriter Chris Nyst, a famed Gold Coast criminal justice lawyer and crime fiction writer. “He’s a bit of a renaissance man of the Gold Coast,” Teplitzky says of Chris Nyst. “He’s a bit of a painter, and he’s got two published novels as well as being a lawyer. This script is a classic example of the fact that if you write what you know, then you’re halfway there. You’re with a film that knows its world, and its characters speak the truth. Something I really pressed on the actors was to respect the writing, and to never play it for laughs. The audience will find it funny because it’s part of the characters. I think that has a much richer comedic viability than just telling a gag.”

For Jonathan Teplitzky, his connection to the film is an obvious one. “The heart of the film is the characters,” he says. “They allow the film to exist in a very stylised place, which is the sort of filmmaking I like. So while there’s a real style to it, it always maintains the feeling of being real.”