Mainly a treat for armchair tourists and Australiaphiles, BACK OF BEYOND uses a glorious Northern Territory backdrop for a minor narrative conjuring trick.
Mechanic Tom (Paul Mercurio) and his little sister, Susan (Rebekah Elmaloglou), manage a funky combination diner/service station far from anywhere in the Australian Outback. Tom urges Susan to join him on his motorcycle for a joyride that ends in a fatal crash. A dozen years later, bereaved Tom
dwells in melancholy solitude at the diner, telling motorists that the establishment is closed, and aiding only desperate and deserving travelers. Not quite up to that definition are Connor (Colin Friels), an overbearing crook who has just masterminded a jewel heist; his floozy, Charlie (Dee
Smart), and Connor's weak brother, Nick (John Polson). Their getaway car breaks down in the desert, and the trio alternately beg, entice and threaten impassive Tom into fixing the auto. To Connor's mounting fury, Charlie is attracted to the handsome hermit and reconsiders her tawdry life as a
gangster smoll. Tom, when in Charlie's company, shows signs of finally coming to terms with Susan's death. Nick eventually tires of Connor's bullying and rides off with a touring musician. Connor forces Charlie to depart with him in the repaired car, but she defiantly hurls his diamonds over a
cliff, leaving the villain to rage impotently as she returns to Tom. The truth emerges: Tom and Susan died in the motorcycle crash. Charlie and the others were consorting with a ghost all along. Thanks to Charlie, Tom can now rejoin Susan, but memories of him keep Charlie happy and content, as she
takes over running the isolated diner.
The closing revelation compels one to completely rethink all that has gone before--Tom's unfliching reaction to Connor's drawn gun; the filmmakers' seeming oversight in Tom not aging a day in 12 years; the mechanic's psychic flashes of insight; and the inevitable aborigines who visit from time to
time and understand Paul's true nature thanks to ever-cliched native mysticism. In any such cinematic sortie to eternity, the question remains: Is this trip really worth it? Certainly, if for nothing else than the view. Stephen Dobson's cinematography makes the Outback's painted hills and oases
bloom off the screen, even in the straight-to-video format by which this Australian theatrical premiered in the USA. But the timeless splendor of the land serves to dwarf the smaller-than-life characters, drawn as one-note archetypes. Mercurio sulks soulfully (and dances with spectral Susan, in
reference to his breakthrough role in the 1992 international hit STRICTLY BALLROOM). Friels blusters, and Dee Smart (who spends much of the movie in glamorous outfits meant to contrast with the arid surrounding) goes through a farfetched turnabout from amoral party girl to selfless contemplative,
being introspective to the tune of the token pop song "Dreams," by the Cranberries. It's never more than unbelievable. The way BACK OF BEYOND looks is unbelievable sometimes as well, but at least it's genuine; the production was shot around Alice Springs and the Ross River Homestead. (Violence,
substance abuse, profanity.)
