The story is set in a small town in Western Australia and it mirrors small town life with a loving feel. The surrounds are idyllic and its inhabitants are not portrayed as yokels but as a community with compassion but one coloured by conservatism and some degree of racism. Into this mix we focus on Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller), a soft spoken and sensitive 14 year-old boy who is about to get pulled into a world previously unknown to him.

The cast is peppered with well known Aussie thespians and both Hugo Weaving as a recluse and Toni Collette as Charle’s often times neurotic mother deliver outstanding performances. It’s a story told with subtle shades and understatement but one that has a punch when dark details are revealed.

Jasper Jones harkens back to the age when Australian cinema focused on the everyday life of its rural citizens and not just the extreme characters that inhabit the fringes of its society. It’s an engaging story well told with some darkness at its core that separates it from a being just a warm and fuzzy tale of small town life.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/madmanfilms

The story is set in a small town in Western Australia and it mirrors small town life with a loving feel. The surrounds are idyllic and its inhabitants are not portrayed as yokels but as a community with compassion but one coloured by conservatism and some degree of racism. Into this mix we focus on Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller), a soft spoken and sensitive 14 year-old boy who is about to get pulled into a world previously unknown to him.

The cast is peppered with well known Aussie thespians and both Hugo Weaving as a recluse and Toni Collette as Charle’s often times neurotic mother deliver outstanding performances. It’s a story told with subtle shades and understatement but one that has a punch when dark details are revealed.

Jasper Jones harkens back to the age when Australian cinema focused on the everyday life of its rural citizens and not just the extreme characters that inhabit the fringes of its society. It’s an engaging story well told with some darkness at its core that separates it from a being just a warm and fuzzy tale of small town life.

Rob Hudson
www.jasperjonesfilm.com

The set up is interesting enough: young orphan, Peter, is abducted to Neverland where he befriends Tiger Lilly, Tinkerbell and a young Hook and together they save Neverland from Blackbeard the pirate. The narrator is unequivocal about the central theme being best friends becoming enemies – a clear reference to the Peter/Hook relationship.

The problem is that by film’s end Peter and (now Captain) Hook are still friends! So the story, as a whole, feels unresolved.

Now, perhaps the intention here is to follow up with a sequel or (surprise!) a trilogy but the plot simply isn’t complicated enough to warrant it – we’re not talking Lord of the Rings here – and the story arc between these two characters could easily have been wrapped up within this sub two-hour movie. And given the unspectacular patronage to this film, it’s questionable whether a sequel would even be made.

The film’s other problem is its blasé presentation. It never ceases to amaze how Hollywood can make so little for so much money. So much of the budget seems spent on costuming, sets and set pieces, it’s as if the purpose of the expenditure is to distract the audience from the fact that there’s really not much going on. Colour saturation, bombast with occasional inexplicable lapses into song suggest a half-hearted attempt to ape Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

The film’s excesses are replete with bungy jumping pirates and curiously Caucasian ‘Native American’ acrobats – although strangely the Piccaninny elder is Aboriginal and their warrior is Asian. I guess they got some ethnicities in there, just not the right ones!

The result is a trippy Cirque du Soleil type experience that is kind of fun but ultimately vacuous and unsatisfying.

Stuart Jamieson
www.panmovie.com