Film review: The Travellers (plus ticket giveaway)

Bruce Beresford’s The Travellers should speak to me on a different level. I also left my city (and home country) to pursue a career opportunity in another place and returning home means dealing with unresolved family issues and confronting the fact that while I may have changed, it feels like back home didn’t. So believe me when I say that this film tries so hard to cling to its drama, that it failed to hit a true emotion.

The returning man is Stephen (Luke Bracey), now a star opera set designer in Europe, who finds his way back to his hometown in rural Western Australia to be with his sickly mother. Stephen’s father, Fred (Bryan Brown) is a stubborn old git, salt of the Earth kind of all-Australian bloke, who is probably losing some of his sense of reality, but never connected with his creative son, anyway. Then there’s the sister, Nikki (Susie Porter), who lives several hours away with her family but works as a bridge between Fred and Stephen. How detached is Stephen from the rest of the world? He goes to the little country town pub (I re-iterate, he grew up in this place) wearing a neck scarf. A man of the people.

Fred in the meantime slowly loses reason in a house that becomes progressively messier. Lightbulbs aren’t replaced, newspapers aren’t thrown out (“there are some articles I want to keep” he says), and dinners are often just a can of beans. Even my father-in-law throws a sausage or two on the barbeque, no need to this level of dejection.

The problem is exactly how in-your-face all of it is. Beresford, who also penned the script, is a veteran filmmaker who made his career during the era of serious Hollywood prestige that doesn’t exist anymore (Driving Miss Daisy, Crimes of the Heart). But those films had the scrutiny of an entire production machine behind them, maybe to tug the heartstrings of the biggest sceptic. Unshackled, Beresford gives nothing else but trivial mundanities and simplistic interpretations of the world.

It comes across that Beresford has never talked to a young person or even visited a single rural Australian town. Because where did he find the only town in Western Australia with no First Nations peoples (not true, there is one, in the background, he’s not given a single line lest production has to pay him residuals). There’s an odd motif about “it was better in the old days”, heightened by Fred’s disconnect with his grandchildren mainly because they’re always on their iPads (you know, kids these days…), and a worthless scene where Fred muses about Errol Flynn as “they don’t make’em like they used to” movie star. I do like that Stephen’s counterpoint is Cate Blanchet and Mark Rylance.

Beyond the naivete of its ways, The Travellers can be rather charming. Brown nails his performance, but it feels like the film left something on the floor to stand up to Fred’s stubbornness against progress. Stephen is probably the conduit to Beresford (the filmmaker admitted the film was based in his own experience of going back home to his mother after the pandemic), but he’s underwritten to a fault. He’s so annoyingly arrogant I struggle to think of someone who would behave like he does, but he also seems to charm every single woman he comes across, for no less than three women fall for him, and two go out of their way to be with him at least once. It’s wishful thinking, the whole thing. Completely out of character unless the director wants to imagine a world where everyone wants to sleep with him at the flick of a clever turn phrase.

There is here a solid three star film somewhere, if Beresford had listened to the feedback. Because this is what it looks like. That he delivered this personal script but no one had the guts to send him notes to develop the theme and his characters a little better. As a result, it’s all very anaemic. I’m all up for supporting Australian cinema, and by all means go see this film if it sounds like you’ll appreciate it more than me, but I wonder if Australian filmmakers are too comfortable in their own space to listen to scrutiny. Why no one in this production went back to Beresford with some thoughts on his plot lines, with concerns on how the themes were developed. The Travellers is a middle-of-the-road drama with no relevant truth to tell. More “old man shouts at the cloud” than human analysis of our failure to reconnect with our roots if we go too far, too astray. Because there’s a good idea there, one that could even reveal something larger about the modern Australian experience.

Verdict: 2 out of 5
For anyone looking for a simple, no fuss, drama. It’s the lowest denominator of the genre, but if you’re looking for something deeper, look elsewhere.

Ticket giveaway – Twinless

LSJ and Sony Pictures have 10 double passes for the upcoming comedy TWINLESS.

After meeting in a twin bereavement support group, Roman (Dylan O’Brien) and Dennis (James Sweeney) develop an unlikely bromance as they both search for solace and an identity without their better halves. They soon become inseparable, but old wounds reopen that will have permanent consequences for their friendship. Lauren Graham and Aisling Franciosi also star in this stirring, whip-smart, wholly original dark-comedy from breakout multi hyphenate director James Sweeney. In cinemas 23 October. Watch the trailer here.

For a chance to win a double pass, email your postal address to journal@lawsociety.com.au with the subject line TWINLESS by Tuesday 14 October.