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Look Both Ways
Directed by: Sarah Watt
Starring: Justine Clarke
Genre:
Drama/Independent
Run Time: 100 min.
Release Date: April
2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
Death is a touchy subject to broach regardless of the
medium in which you choose to expose it. It’s uncomfortable to even
think about yet touches us all on many levels, and that is why LOOK
BOTH WAYS succeeds.
Building on death in thought-provoking, sad, and often hilarious terms,
Look Both Ways binds a small Australian community together after
the death of a man upon the local railroad tracks. Meryl (Justine
Clarke, DANNY DECKCHAIR) witnesses the horrible event and summons
the authorities. The local media shows up, including photojournalist
Nick (William McInnes, IRRESISTIBLE) who’s just been diagnosed
with a rapidly spreading cancer. Also on the scene is Nick’s newspaper
partner Andy (Anthony Hayes, NED KELLY) and eventually the
deceased’s wife Julia (Daniella Farinacci, BROTHERS).
Meryl sees the event as just another death, something that fill her
thoughts and her paintings on a daily basis. Her vivid imagination
surrounding death is illustrated (literally) via laughingly silly
animated sequences that are sure to tickle your dark funny bone.
Photojournalist Nick sees himself on the railroad tracks, having just
received a medical death sentence of metastatic testicular cancer.
Newspaper writer Andy battles to understand life and death while
struggling to be a good father to his divorced children, and the
discovery that his new girlfriend is pregnant with an unwanted child.
Widow Julia tries to understand the seemingly meaninglessness of her
husband’s death as flowers flow into her home and she’s forced to come
to grips with such a sudden loss.
Where Look Both Ways excels is in its delivery. Each person views
death under their own unique umbrella, but are bound together by this
one tragic event. Meryl and Nick become oddball lovers during a one
night stand, while newsman Andy tries to sort through his chaotic and
merciless lifestyle. Widow Julia and the engineer who was driving the
train are two of the more interesting cases within the story, as they
have no speaking parts until the very end, but are given ample screen
time which speaks volumes on its own.
The message of the flick is simple but not forced: look at death both
ways. See it as a necessity but don’t dwell on it. There is hope and
fear within it, operating not at opposite ends of the spectrum, but as a
gauge on how to live life without death looming ever present on one’s
mind.
Meryl, the one who the film is mostly about, learns this lesson the hard
way, coming to terms with her own fate, and that of Nick who’s cancerous
life is destined to plow into hers with the force of a padded
sledgehammer.
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Image from Look Both Ways
DVD cost: $25.99
Purchase:
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Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
Look Both Ways won
the Australian Film Institutes' awards for Best Direction, Best Film,
Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.
Movie Quote: "I
met you on Friday. We slept together on Saturday. I met your mom on
Sunday. And now your breaking up with me. That's the tightest little
relationship I've ever had."
Other Actors/Actresses
from Look Both Ways
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