THREE DOLLARS
Screening at Serge Constantin Theatre, Vacoas
Sunday 18 February from 7:30 PM
Synopsis
Eddie (David Wenham) by profession is a chemical engineer working for the Victorian Public Service testing soil for contamination in advance of development. His wife Tanya (Frances O'Connor) is an academic, and their six year old daughter Abby (Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik) is well loved. When he leaks a report to The Age, concerned about a certain project, he is fired and finds himself unemployed, with just three dollars to his name. It's at this moment that he meets his childhood sweetheart again, Amanada (Sarah Wynter), daughter of a wealthy developer. With Tanya tearfully fearful for their future, Eddie's natural optimism is tested to the limit as he turns a baffled eye on the world.
Review
Courtesy of Andrew L. Urban, www.urbancinefile.com.au
Three Dollars is such a strange film I am tempted to read the novel (only time constraints have held me back so far) to see if the tantalising episodes of Eddie's life captured here find some cohesion through the inner voice of literature. The cinematic arts of the film are beyond doubt: Robert Connolly is a natural master of film, and he makes this a fascinating work, filled with little treasures of observation, performance and technique.
The symbolism is obtuse, and three dollars and the three women in Eddie's life (wife, daughter, Amanda) are not readily identifiable as cross symbolic. For me, the film's theme is decency or integrity, something Eddie suffers for in various ways, from losing his job to helping others. Each time he goes to help someone, he pays the price. But in the case of his decency toward one homeless man (Robert Menzies in top form), he is repaid in kind.
The fact that it is this outcast of society who returns the good deed is perhaps one of the film's melancholy messages about our world. David Wenham brings his humanity to the role with a subtle and wide ranging performance in which he is required to show many facets of a morally upright man in a morally uncertain world. Frances O'Connor shows once again her range and her depth as Tanya, while the tiny, sweet little Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik is a terrific find.
Eddie's reflection on the coincidence that he meets Amanada every nine and a half years - and this is the fourth - is a more important to him for its obscurity, perhaps, than for any real meaning. Like wise for us, but the film is engaging and a pleasure to watch, especially the first half. First and foremost a character study, Three Dollars also brings together elements that could be identified (loosely) as romantic comedy, thriller and psychological drama.
In the end, Eddie comes through his trials with his integrity and decency providing the comfort that financial security could not. Family and self knowledge give him the strength and peace of mind he could never find elsewhere. On the way, he comes face to face with the brutality of the modern world - in every walk of life.
Production Information
Director: Robert Connelly
Producer: John Maynard
Writer: Robert Connolly, Elliot Perlman
Cast: David Wenham, Frances O'Connor, Sarah Wynter
Duration: 119 min
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Original Australian Theatrical Censorship Rating: M
Screen Ratio: Wide screen 1:1.85
Selected Awards
- 2005 Australian Film Institute award for Best Screenplay Adapted
- 2005 Australian Film Institute Young Actors Award - Joanna Hunt - Prokhovnik
- 2005 Film Critics Circle of Australian for Best Screenplay Adapted
- 2005 Montreal World Film Festival - Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Special Mention
Australian Film Festival 2007 proudly sponsored by:
- Australian Film Commission
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- The Ministry of Arts and Culture
- The Mauritius Film Development Corporation
- Air Mauritius
- IDP Education
- La Sentinelle
- Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation
- Scott & Co Ltd
- Urban Cinefile