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Love Serenade

1996, Movie, R, 100 mins

Love Serenade: Review

LOVE SERENADE
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Coming straight out of left field, this very dark and very funny film marks the debut of Australian writer-director Shirley Barrett. Twenty-six-year-old Vicki-Ann Hurley (Rebecca Frith) -- single but desperately looking -- and her oddball younger sister Dimity (Miranda Otto), who's 21 and just plain desperate, are both watching their lives go absolutely nowhere in the dusty dead-end town of Sunray, Australia. Things are considerably livened up when a sleazy roue, Brisbane's big-time radio DJ Ken Sherry (George Shevtsov), rolls into town and rents the house next door. If ever there were a big fish in a small pond, it's Ken: Well into his 40s and having just survived his third divorce, he has more in common with some slimy species of aquatic bottom-feeder than anything that walks upright and breathes air. Good thing, then, that Dimity has a weird thing for fish. One problem: Vicki-Ann has already set her sights on the slithery Mr. Sherry, and in no time at all the sisters are both fighting over Mr. Wrong. Barrett's strange comedy walks a very fine line: When not treading on the toes of Jane Campion's equally quirky SWEETIE, it swerves perilously close to the degrading "I'll do anything, just give me that ring!" comedies of P.J. Hogan (MURIEL'S WEDDING, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING). But by the end -- and what an ending! -- Barrett's film has deftly avoided all its own baited hooks and come entirely into its own. The black-comic tone may not be to everyone's taste, but few could argue with Frith's and Otto's pitch-perfect performances or the sweaty sex appeal of the wonderful '70s-soul soundtrack. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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