And speaking of one-note, Robert Morgan’s copper is pure caricature, and a scene in which he threatens Paula is almost comical in its aggression. His minimal dialogue makes him too conspicuous for one attempting to start afresh. Director Tony Ayres keeps the boil on from the word go, building tensions in unexpected places – there’s the classic hero’s dilemma of Merv choosing between his new life and the old, and another, more pressing question that lingers as subtext until bursting into the light.Īs for characterisation, Russell’s turn as Merv ‘Sparra’ Farrell is often frustratingly one-note. Brutish and charismatic, Pommie has just got out of prison, and is hell-bent on seeing Merv return to the world he left behind.įor yet another film set in small-town outback Australia, Cut Snake looks a treat thanks to Simon Chapman’s cinematographic efforts. Merv Farrell ( Alex Russell) is settling into a new family and a new life in Melbourne, complete with his own home and an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Paula ( Jessica de Gouw), when Pommie ( Sullivan Stapleton) shows up. Cut Snake manages to surprise with its complex characters and distinctive cinematography, elevating it above your run-of-the-mill ‘Aussie’ flick. Shame on me, really, for walking into a film with low expectations simply because it’s a rural Australian crime drama – i.e. Instead, Cut Snake doesn’t quite live up to its name, and instead coils itself to sleep around a piece of fairly trite melodrama.Starring Sullivan Stapleton, Alex Russell, Jessica De Gouw It feels like a hamfisted attempt at redemption, and it would have been more compelling and understated to see the character remain absolute in his dedication to destroying Mirv’s happiness as revenge for being abandoned. Her reactions felt out of place considering the setting, but were eventually reneged without much analysis into the character’s thought process, which is a shame considering the work put in by De Gouw.Ĭapping the story is an improbable finale which goes for an emotional gut punch that seems obvious, but also fairly in-elegant due to the change of heart that occurs in Pommie. Part of this is due to a fairly underwhelming handling of Paula, who serves as outsider and main source of insight into the knotted threads of Mirv and Jim’s past. It’s difficult to dislike, but it fails to really ignite any great interest. The fashion remains a high point, and the in your face attitude of the male characters suggests that there was a concerted effort to try and conduct a deeper exploration of the issues it eventually comes to focus on.
Otherwise, there’s little to get excited about. Allusions towards the reveal make themselves known in a few instances, and although it isn’t subtly handled - machismo and violence often get in the way of true emotions - it’s certainly a believable story. I don’t want to spoil it, because the novel angle it takes is the best thing going for this film, and it is a smart twist to an rote story. There’s more to their past than crime and prison though, and Paula has her illusions shattered by Pommie as he drops some truly incendiary bombs throughout the film. Pommie is back, and he’s tempting a reluctant Sparra back into a life that he’s long since left behind, threatening to upset Sparra and and Paula’s (Jessica De Gouw) relationship. It’s never really justified, but it makes for a unique setting at the very least, although Seventies Australia could easily be Seventies UK or US here.įor the most part, this is a by the numbers affair. The Seventies setting either serves to cast the film in a lovely sun kissed glow, to adorn the cast in some impressively tight clothes, or to hint at certain identity politics that end up being the focus of the biggest twist of the film. He’s all muscle and tattoos, played with an impressively predatory glint in the eyes, and he’s desperate to be re-united with his former prison mate Mirv “Sparra”, played with chiseled stoicism by Alex Russell. Returning to a homegrown Australian project after a dalliance with Hollywood, Sullivan Stapleton is the freshly released prisoner Jim “Pommie” Stewart.
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