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Canberra Today 20°/22° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: ‘Goddess’ (PG) half a star

THIS is the kind of Australian film that lacerates a reviewer’s soul. Its good intentions are palpable – observing aspects of society that merit discussion. Its Tasmanian exteriors look sublime. Magda Zsubanski as the villainess is, as usual, admirable despite, or perhaps because of, having to spout dialogue that is trite, abrasive and alienating.

That short list sums up the good things about a film in which Elspeth (Laura Michelle Kelly), caring for scallywag twin sons on a Tasmanian farm while husband James (Ronan Keating) is away recording whale song, stumbles across fame when she goes live on the web chortling the “sink songs” that divert her from life’s hum-drummity.

Elspeth doesn’t realise that her web-cam moments, intended to keep in touch with James, have become a viral hit. Sydney advertising tycoon Cassandra (Szubanski) needs a success. One of her clients wants to break into the oversupplied tablet market. It’s called Goddess.

Director Mark Lamprell and his co-writer Joanna Weinberg have failed to see the mishmash they were creating. The plot sinks into a bottomless satirical morass as notoriety destroys the ephemeral comfort zone of overnight success.

“Goddess” is a musical (Kelly is apparently a bit of a hit on the London stage). None of its numbers is likely to top any charts. The clod-hopping dance routines lack charm. Cliché drives its humour.

Kelly has the unenviable task of carrying a plot that inflicts a high frustration level on its audience. Nowhere in the film could I discern any convincing Goddessliness to help us bear that burden.

At all cinemas

 

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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