The Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Australia)
Sept 28, 2003
Playing DUMB
By Chris Taylor
Thick as a short plank...that's the latest role for David Wenham, writes CHRIS TAYLOR
THERE IS no middle ground for David Wenham.
The rogues' gallery the Australian actor has portrayed so far in his
colourful, character-driven career is mainly at the extreme ends of the
spectrum -- either fiercely intelligent or thick as a short plank.
His latest, Johnny ``The Spit'' Spitieri, in the crooks-and-bent-cops caper
Gettin' Square by Gold Coast criminal lawyer and writer Chris Nyst, is clearly
in the second category.
Johnny The Spit may be one of the biggest idiots -- albeit an endearing one --
to feature in an Australian film in a decade.
He's the sort of two-bit crim who sports an atrocious mullet, wears worrying
leopard-print undies -- as seen in a key sequence -- and tries to hold up an
all-night service station with a screwdriver and a tea towel.
Dumb as they come.
The beauty of it is that, off-screen, Wenham does not seem the type who would
gladly suffer fools like Spitieri. The Wenham dichotomy is that while he has a
deep empathy for characters like Johnny, off-screen he'd probably spot him at
500 paces and put him in his place with a single withering glance.
"He's not smart, but at the same time Johnny's a paradox," Wenham says. "He
does survive on his rat cunning. He's not one of society's most attractive
characters... and some others of mine haven't been either.
"A few of the people I've played fall between smart and dumb. But people like
Johnny, I feel a genuine affection for."
Filmed around Maryborough, Brisbane and mostly the Gold Coast, Gettin' Square
debuted at the recent Brisbane International Film Festival. But Wenham saw it
with an audience only this week.
"After sitting with an audience, yeah, it works. With film, you never know
how they will go. But I do love a gamble, I do love to take on a dicey role.
"I'd so love it to do well, but I think it's going to be a word-of-mouth
film, that'll put bums on seats. Fingers crossed."
Gettin' Square is a fast, tightly-woven little drama that, while bristling
with energy and played mostly for laughs, doesn't always make a lot of sense.
The characters are written with genuine affection by Nyst -- whose first
career as a Gold Coast lawyer would qualify him to know these characters
intimately -- but they appear to be almost of another era.
The shady deals and laughably crooked cops inhabit a modern-day Surfers
Paradise but, in truth, the party was over for the criminal underworld by the
end of the 1980s.
What Gettin' Square does have going for it is knockout performances from
Wenham, Sam Worthington and British import Timothy Spall... and a clever
script from the writer who is attuned to the dialogue of the underworld.
"I wasn't aware of who Chris Nyst was when I read the script, but I found out
pretty quickly," Wenham says. "He's just got an ear for the dialogue. He
knows that world better than anyone and he's captured stuff that's very
specific to people in that world."
Wenham's small-time thug is released from prison about the same time as his
fellow inmate Barry Wirth (Worthington).
Life on the outside is a tough slog before both characters end up on the
Coast, Wenham as a junkie looking for his next fix and Worthington as a chef
at a spectacularly unsuccessful restaurant owned by the dodgy Darren
Barrington (Spall).
It's clear from the outset things are going to end in tears. But along the way
Nyst and director Jonathan Teplitzky provide employment for an array of Gold
Coast personalities who appear in cameos including Ugly Dave Gray, Joe Bugner
and even Gretel Killeen (as a wife from hell).
It's also one of just a few Australian films to go into production and achieve
distribution this year, a fact Wenham concedes is part of an industry
considered to be going through a rough patch.
"It's a difficult thing to judge and I could say, 'Yes things are in a bad
way', but I think the fact is we just haven't had a hit movie for a while.
Only a handful of films have even turned a profit.
"What I do know is that it's bloody hard to make a good film, it's bloody
hard to write a good film and sometimes films go into production that possibly
shouldn't have.
"It's so difficult to find a script that's really good and works, they are
absolutely like hens' teeth. But go to the United States, go to Italy, go to
the UK -- people are bemoaning the lack of quality in film scripts
everywhere."
And speaking of actors overseas, Wenham is yet to join the growing exodus of
Australian actors taking on Hollywood, despite significant exposure in the
Lord Of The Rings series which will climax with the release of The Return of
the King in December.
In an ideal world, I'd be able to split my life overseas and at home -- but
this is my home. I'd never not want to work locally."
* Gettin' Square opens on October 9.
-- End --