37 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
37 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
let's say you live at the end of an airport runway .
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large jetliners continuously pass over your house , rattling your windows and allowing few moments of peace .
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let's say the ground beneath your feet is also contaminated with toxic substances , and high voltage power lines run across steel towers only yards from your home .
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now let's say an airport conglomerate wants to buy your property in order to lengthen the runway , and offers you more than it's worth .
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wouldn't you jump in the air and have your bags packed before you landed ?
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of course you would .
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but what if this bit of land was your idea of paradise , and the house your castle ?
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that's what they are to darryl kerrigan ( michael caton ) , and although he's happy that a multi-national corporation would like to buy his home , sorry , it's not for sale .
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unfortunately , the corporation wields quite a bit of influence over the australian government , which serves darryl and his family with what amounts to an eviction notice .
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not about to take this lying down , darryl enlists the help of his inept attorney friend dennis denuto ( tiriel mora ) and makes a determined , albeit pathetic , attempt to fight back .
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the castle , an australian comedy by rob sitch , is perhaps one of the simplest movies i've seen in recent memory , yet also one of the funniest .
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in fact , it is this film's reliance on simplicity which makes it so successful .
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the good guys and the bad guys are clear , the humor is straightforward , and the storyline is as uncomplicated as it gets .
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it's the perfect setup for a relaxing , hilarious good time , and as much as i hate to admit it , i liked the fact that i didn't have to think all that much while watching this film .
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i just sat back and enjoyed myself .
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the situation is one we've seen before : regular joe fights back against the government , or big business , or whatever .
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what makes this film different is its characters .
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darryl thinks he's got the best life in the world - he tells his family that living next to power lines is a constant reminder of the success of mankind , he asks who would ever want to go out and eat in a fancy restaurant when he's got the meat loaf feast prepared by his wife sal ( anne tenny ) , and he swells with pride when his son dale ( stephen curry ) digs a hole in the yard .
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steve kerrigan ( anthony simcoe ) constantly combs the buy and sell ads looking for " investments " like jousting sticks and overhead projectors , while wayne kerrigan is in jail , as a result of dennis denuto's incompetent courtroom maneuvers .
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the great thing about the kerrigans is that they aren't so stupid that they get annoying .
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they're just a group of simpletons whose naive nature is perfectly harmless and even endearing .
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we look upon them with a little bit of pity , but a whole lot of affection .
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screenwriters sitch , santo cilauro , tom gleisner , and jane kennedy pit this lovable bunch of unlikely crusaders against a stoic court system and a condescending business conglomerate , further polarizing the extremes and deepening our feelings for the kerrigans .
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sympathy for their situation , the laughter they bring us , and the family's wonderful characterization , simple as it may be , leaves us with a degree of emotional investment that causes us to actually care about what happens to them .
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i suppose one might wonder how deep characterization can go when your characters are as inane as the kerrigans , but trust me , it works .
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i particularly noted that the writers did not have to use slapstick in order to get laughs .
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don't get me wrong - slapstick , when executed well , can be genius .
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it's just that too often , a film will resort to it's use as a shortcut to amusing the audience , not always successfully .
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instead , the jokes in the castle are all hinged upon the dialog uttered by these people who have no idea that they are totally skewed to the rest of the world .
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when they are by themselves , the are funny , and when they are with normal people , they are hilarious .
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one of the few problems i saw with this film was a detour taken about midway though .
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the kerrigans go out to a vacation spot for seemingly no reason other than to pack in a few more jokes and increase the film's running time .
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luckily , it's a funny little detour that , while slightly distracting from the film's main drive , is still quite enjoyable .
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with all the levity abound in the castle , the film still manages to take on a pretty heavy concept , that of the innate right of a citizen to keep his property , an issue which has been bandied about in courts across the civilized world with differing outcomes .
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i'm not certain the courtroom monologue near the end of the film would actually hold up in real life , but it brings to the forefront the essence of the constitution ( of australia ) and certainly sounds impressive at any rate .
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and , for that matter , it's more than i would have expected out of a light hearted film like this .
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