Category: Movie Reviews

I have to think very long and hard about whether or not what I experienced today is something I’ve experienced before. Today I sat in a movie theatre with around 75 or so other people, and not one single person moved from their seat until after the movie’s credits had finished. When the credits finished, the hushed theatre broke out in a round of applause before people started to make their way out the door.

Such is the power of this film to make you think, to make you examine your own attitude towards an issue that remains very topical here in Australia – asylum seekers.

When refugees take it upon themselves to migrate to Australia outside of the official channels, they are detained until their case can be investigated and assessed. They are asylum seekers, looking for protection from persecution in their home countries. If their situation is found to be legitimate, they are eventually allowed to stay. If not, they are deported to their home country. The debate in this country is mainly focused on where/how they are processed and how long it takes.

Mary Meets Mohammad tracks the meeting of two vastly different cultures.

The first is that of Mary, a 71-year-old Australian woman who belongs to a knitting group in a community near the detention center. The group decides to knit woollen hats (called ‘beanies’ here) for a group of asylum seekers who are sent into mandatory detention here in Tasmania.

The facility they’ll be living in is new and the movie opens with a community meeting in the area where the asylum seeker detention center is to be established. Tension in the community is high. Tasmania successfully accepted hundreds of temporary refugees from Kosovo in the late 1990s. This time, with the refugees all being men from Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan – and despite the fact that these men will be living in detention, with big fences surrounding them – there’s a lot more fear in the community.

The filmmaker interviews a number of locals living close to the detention center and it’s confronting to see the prejudices evident in people’s words. It’s these sections of the film that were the most powerful for me. This documentary was made in Tasmania. What you in see, the prejudice, fear and misinformation, is a reflection of the community that I live in. It’s not confined to Tasmania, but it’s all the more confronting because whilst this isn’t me, my wife, our friend Sarah who we saw the film with or many of our friends, it is still US as a collective. The reflection is difficult to take in.

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As you can see in the trailer, Mary’s initial attitude towards the asylum seekers is that they’re heathens and cowards. She declines participation in her knitting group’s charitable act at first. Eventually, she’s part of the group that visits the detention center to deliver the beanies and it’s here that the changes begin. Mary, like most of us, is open to learning the truth about what are generally a desperate group of people.

At one point, Mary meets a group of old friends from the local Seniors Group and a discussion ensues about the asylum seekers. The opinions shared by her Seniors friends are caustic, almost offensive. You can tell that Mary is doing her best to remain calm amidst their misinformed claims. More importantly, however, is the implicit understanding in Mary that this is how she used to think. As viewers, we’re confronted by the film as a mirror to society. This scene is Mary’s personal mirror as to how she used to be, how she used to think.

Mary’s main point of contact inside the detention center is a young Afghani named Mohammad. He fled Afghanistan to live in Pakistan with his family and they remained there, facing genuine threats from the Taliban, while Mohammad made his way to Australia.

Mohammad is eventually released into the community and the friendship between he and Mary is genuine, unexpected, and touching.

Mary meets Mohammad is an important film that all Australians should see. Unfortunately, it’ll most likely only be seen by a relative handful. The filmmakers are hoping to raise enough money to take the film on tour around the country. It’s a real eye-opener; a film that forced me to examine my own thoughts on the issue and a film that will educate you on the reality of who these people are.

The Tasmanian experience is much more humane than the situation faced by asylum seekers sent elsewhere by the Australian Government. What you see here will embarrass you in terms of Australian prejudice, but it doesn’t shock you the way the film might have if it were focused on Australian detention centers in Manus Island or Nauru.

My own thoughts – Australia does need to address how it processes asylum seekers. It needs to be faster and more humane. I can understand the need for it to be an ordered process and I understand the need to prevent people from jumping on rickety boats that are prone to sinking on their way here. But there’s got to be a better way and there’s got to be more understanding in the community.

I could make some minor complaints about the film dragging in some areas, but that would deflecting the point. This is an excellent piece of work and I hope as many eyes see it as possible.

We tried to see Silver Linings Playbook three or four weeks ago and it was sold out. It was still packed solid tonight. Was that due to Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar win for Best Actress? I don’t think so. I think this is just a damn good movie and people are coming to see it on the big screen while they still can.

Here’s the preview……

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And here’s what the preview doesn’t tell you:

Pat (Bradley Cooper) has recently been released from what is essentially a prison hospital. He has a Bi-Polar disorder that was most recently set off by discovering his wife in the shower with a work colleague.

Desperate to win back his wife’s love, Pat returns home to his rather disjointed family and tries to get back on his feet – reading, working out and trying to find a strategy to cope when one of his ‘moments’ threatens his inner peace.

It’s during this pilgrimage to normality that Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who’s also pretty screwed up after the premature death of her husband. In short, they’re both messed up and they both have messed up families trying to care for them. Whether they find each other because of, or in spite of their troubled circumstances is a matter for discussion. Find each other they do, however, and it’s a heartwarming story.

Silver Linings Playbook isn’t your typical romantic comedy. It feels kind of silly saying this, but it’s almost as if it’s a guy’s romantic comedy. The film is set in Philadelphia and hovers around Pat’s football-mad family home. It’s a tough town and in comparison with your typical rom-com, this can be a rough, raw and honest film. Pat has a mental illness and whilst the movie doesn’t go into it in-depth, there are moments in the film that you can feel them trying hard to portray the tension within. Sometimes it works (looking for the wedding video) and sometimes it doesn’t (the football game). But kudos to the producers for exploring the theme in what is an unlikely setting.

There are some genuinely funny moments in there, too, and our theatre was alive with laughter on a number of occasions.

All of the performances are first class. I didn’t see the other nominees for Best Actress but Lawrence was superb in this movie. She’s tough, sassy, accessible and vulnerable all at once. Cooper really impressed me as well (and it’s fair to say I’m not a big fan of his previous work). Robert De Niro is his usual, excellent self as Pat senior and a special nod goes to Australian Jackie Weaver as Pat’s long-suffering, beautiful mother.

The best line of the movie comes from De Niro, poignant and wonderfully delivered at the peak of the film:

“When life reaches out at a moment like this it’s a sin not to reach back”

Maybe that’s Silver Linings Playbook in a nutshell – fighting to regain your life in an honest way and having life respond to you. Looking for the silver lining and having it emerge, as it usually does, from the unexpected. And finally, doing what can be the hardest part – embracing it.

Silver Linings Playbook has a slightly contrived ending but it’s a heartwarming and fitting conclusion to a story well told. It’s a story that’s serious as well as seriously funny. A story of the good things that can happen unexpectedly when you’re just being yourself. Most of all, it’s a pretty honest portrayal of conflicted characters and families who sometimes get themselves into trouble but support each other all the way though it.

4 out of 5 stars from me.

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