Although it stars a virile male, BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS is really an old Jane Wyman or Susan Hayward tearjerker in a jock strap. This Australian soap tells the story of a world-famous writer with a terminal illness trying to make up for a lifetime of selfishness in six months.
Aussie expatriate Tom Garfield (John Waters) rejects lucrative Hollywood writing assignments and heads home to Melbourne. A flashy local producer, Geoff Bormann (Kevin Miles) welcomes Tom's participation in promoting his hit play, "The Human Heart." Exercising his fabled charm on his ex-wife
Helen (Penelope Stewart), Tom, a recovering alcoholic, begs for a second chance after nearly a decade's absence, but Helen resents Tom's re-emergence in the life of their confused young daughter Jessie (Jacinta Stapleton); Helen's boyfriend Jonathan (Andrew McFarlane) also feels threatened. Tom
renews ties to Ian (Kim Gyngell), a struggling writer pal from his salad days, and forges a fresh bond with an aspiring actress Suzy Daniels (Nicki Paull), who's appearing in his play.
Spurned repeatedly by Helen, Tom falls off the wagon and into a hospital, where he admits he's dying of cancer. Refusing to win back his wife by exploiting her pity, he moves in with Suzy. He temporarily forgets his woes by pep-talking Ian into completing a screenplay that could launch his
career. Having passed on the screenwriting mantle, Tom heads back to the US. Helen has a change of heart and tracks him to the airport, where all is forgiven. Now Tom can enjoy the familial warmth he's longed for since his terminal diagnosis.
Since the leading man sports as many costume and hairstyle changes as Lana Turner in her prime, this low-key domestic tragedy might have been better served by cranking up some Douglas Sirkian excess. Straightforwardly scripted and generally dexterously performed, BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
relies too heavily on tasteful, attractively framed shots of the handsome hero's agonized face while soulful ballads wail on the soundtrack--which isn't sufficient to establish sympathy for a remarkably self-centered protagonist. A celebrated workaholic, Tom sacrificed his family for his writing
career but now begs for crumbs of domestic support because he's dying. Wouldn't the noble gesture have been to spare his wife and daughter this quick re-entrance and exit? Fortunately, Waters, who looks and acts like a cross between Peter Finch and Albert Finney, has the star power to draw us into
his prodigal writer's emotional exile. (On the other hand, Kevin Miles gives an insufferable supporting performance as the babbling producer; this nuclear ham should be awarded the Australian equivalent of a Razzie.) (Violence, profanity, adult situations, substance abuse.) leave a comment
