Review: Dirt Music, The Trailer
Here’s how I assess a romantic movie. Sex is generally not the point. I know many people replayed those heavy breath-inducing scenes in Normal People but, after the series’ 27th bedroom romp, I realised the MA+ rated scenes gave me enough time to hang up a full load of laundry without missing a word of dialogue.
Much more likely to make my stomach drop: a grand visual backdrop with rolling hills, luscious landscapes, craggy rocks. (I’ll allow for the occasional dilapidated cabin, as long as looks like it could be on a Pinterest board named Ramshackle Sanctuary.) The trailer for the upcoming movie Dirt Music, based on Tim Winton’s novel, has all these things and more.
David Wenham plays the guy that Kelly Macdonald is cheating on, so you can only imagine what the other guy looks like. (To be honest, it wasn’t Garrett Hedlund’s looks as much as his line in the trailer – “I’m helping you run away” – that really got to me, because which of us hasn’t wanted to pack a suitcase and head for those rolling hills every so often?)
One can glean the storyline from the trailer: Georgie’s husband has moved to the suburb of self-denial (Georgie: “Jim, we should probably talk”; Jim: “Nah, everything’s fine”) and she seeks solace in the arms of a fisherman who lands in her coastal town.
Trouble ensues, of course. Violence is hinted at. It’s got all the trappings of Greek drama, but with excellent hair and lighting. (And if I sound a bit disgruntled here it’s because I had to Google Kelly Macdonald and see how young she was, thinking that the film-makers had cast a 30 year old. Nope, she’s 44.)
There’s real chemistry between the leads, not to mention some folksy music over the top that makes me return to that short snippet of film teaser again and again. It’s like The Bridges of Madison County for a new generation, a tale of falling in love with the right man at the wrong time. And the marvellous Gregor Jordan, of Two Hands fame, directs. Are you in? I am.
Rating: I’ll-see-this-within-two-weeks-of-release-with-some-tissues-discreetly-packed-away-in-my-bag out of 10.
Words_ Rachelle Unreich