Opal Dreams Review
by Mark R. Leeper (mleeper AT optonline DOT net)November 21st, 2006
OPAL DREAM
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: When a nine-year-old's imaginary friends
go missing, her father humors her by pretending to
look for them and gets himself into trouble doing
it. This is a somewhat low-energy telling of a
simple children's story set in the opal-rich desert of Australia's Outback. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or
6/10
What South Africa is for diamonds, the deserts of the
southwestern Australia are for opals. Most of the opals in the world come from the town of Coober Pedy in Australia. And there is where opal hunters lead a bleak existence in the solitary profession of digging in the ground to find what are essentially pretty stones. In this dusty setting we find the Williamson family. Rex (Vince Colosimo) has a checkered past and a dream of some day hitting the jackpot by finding a treasure in opals. Meanwhile his two children lead a lonely existence. Nine-year- old Kellyanne (Sapphire Boyce) is so lonely that her life revolves around her two imaginary friends Pobby and Dingan. In a manner reminiscent of HARVEY they are more real to her than the visible people around her. Somewhat over Rex's objections the family humors her giving deference to the two invented members of the family.
One day the two go with Rex to the digging. Rex's idea is to start weaning Kellyanne of her delusion by giving her a day without them. His own delusion that he will some day strike it rich maybe does more damage to the family than the imaginary friends do, but he would like the family to live with one less delusion. There is a cave-in and Rex barely escapes alive. Soon Kellyanne is informing them that Pobby and Dingan are now missing. She demands the family search for the missing friends. Kellyanne even insists that Rex search near a neighbor's mine diggings. Rex is caught trespassing and accused of "ratting." Though it is not explained, apparently ratting is stealing from someone else's diggings and is a crime hated like horse thieving or cattle rustling was in the American West. The Williamsons now have two crises: Kellyanne and the ostracism of the town. OPAL DREAM itself "rats" a little on a classic Christmas film to resolve the problems.
Peter Cattaneo, the director of the popular film THE FULL MONTY, had his work cut out for him filming the novella "Pobby and Dingan" by Ben Rice. Cattaneo and Rice co-authored the screenplay. The film is a United Kingdom and Australian co- production.
OPAL DREAM is a film that may work better in Australia than it does in the United States. The setting is not just unfamiliar to Americans, but is also an extremely uninviting one. Robert Humphreys's cinematography emphasizes the ugliness and not the beauty of the land. The setting seems more appropriate to a WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND post-Holocaust sort of story than to a children's film that is trying to sell itself on the basis of charm. Similarly, the names of the two imaginary characters Pobby and Dingan in Coober Pedy will be unfamiliar to children and lacking in the lyrical qualities that we find in the names in the "Harry Potter" sort of films. Children and adults might well have problems understanding the thick Australian accents or even realizing that in Australia Christmas comes in early summer.
This film requires some fore-knowledge and effort for the audience to be at the point they can sit back and enjoy. Any of this could be overcome by a really engaging story, but even there the film's offerings are very slight. Under the story one feels this is a subtext about a family leading an unpleasant life apparently due in large part to the father's obsession with the unrewarding profession of opal hunting. The family nurtures the delusions of two of its members. The film never really comes to terms with why the Williamson family is living this nomadic, ramshackle existence in such unappealing surroundings. In the end this film has a sort of Bret Harte tone of people in adversity making the best of it at Christmas time.
OPAL DREAM is a sentimental film, and such a film needs more charm than it evokes in the United States. I rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
