Live from TIFF: Romulus, My Father
Romulus, My Father ***
Directed by Richard Roxburgh
109 Minutes
Richard Roxburgh's directing debut "Romulus, My Father" is an enjoyable, well acted, and beautifully shot family drama. Roxburgh doesn't have the best filmography here in America-credits like "Van Helsing" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,' but he shows that he does have a good idea for direction, and considering its his debut he is able to tell it with gentle care without getting too showy. I could have been watching a director that has been doing the craft for years, and there is so many beautiful imagery and landscapes. Almost every shot in the film was like a painting.
The film is a family drama told from the perspective of a young boy-Raimond-played perfectly by the young Kodi Smit-McPhee. As far as good child actors (this film) and bad child actors go ("Resurrecting the Champ"), young McPhee certainly is the former. Raimond has just moved to Australia with his father Romulus (played by Eric Bana), who changed his name to Jack because its easier to say in this country. They left his mother Christina (played by the oddly beautiful Franka Potente), but she visits from time to time, sometimes wanting to get back in with her family, and other times in the arms of another man. And we watch as the years pass, and Raimond gets a little bit older, and it gets harder and harder to raise a son and juggle a family that is always torn apart-because of Romulus, because of Christina, and because of several other factors.
"Romulus, My Father" is a father/son story at heart, but it did not have as powerful a force as me as "When Did You Last See Your Father?"-which meshed past and present. All the acting is just right on target, its pretty to look at, and it is sweet, even though it is a minor film out of all the ones that I have seen. It has a lot of heart behind the camera, and this is clearly a pet project for Roxburgh. I can't actually recall much of his acting work-I know the characters he has played in these older movies, but I have a hard time picturing his acting. He does some good simple work with the camera, and tells a rather complex relationship story. It's the old adage-predictable, but being well made and performed makes it well worthy seeing.
Directed by Richard Roxburgh
109 Minutes
Richard Roxburgh's directing debut "Romulus, My Father" is an enjoyable, well acted, and beautifully shot family drama. Roxburgh doesn't have the best filmography here in America-credits like "Van Helsing" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,' but he shows that he does have a good idea for direction, and considering its his debut he is able to tell it with gentle care without getting too showy. I could have been watching a director that has been doing the craft for years, and there is so many beautiful imagery and landscapes. Almost every shot in the film was like a painting.
The film is a family drama told from the perspective of a young boy-Raimond-played perfectly by the young Kodi Smit-McPhee. As far as good child actors (this film) and bad child actors go ("Resurrecting the Champ"), young McPhee certainly is the former. Raimond has just moved to Australia with his father Romulus (played by Eric Bana), who changed his name to Jack because its easier to say in this country. They left his mother Christina (played by the oddly beautiful Franka Potente), but she visits from time to time, sometimes wanting to get back in with her family, and other times in the arms of another man. And we watch as the years pass, and Raimond gets a little bit older, and it gets harder and harder to raise a son and juggle a family that is always torn apart-because of Romulus, because of Christina, and because of several other factors.
"Romulus, My Father" is a father/son story at heart, but it did not have as powerful a force as me as "When Did You Last See Your Father?"-which meshed past and present. All the acting is just right on target, its pretty to look at, and it is sweet, even though it is a minor film out of all the ones that I have seen. It has a lot of heart behind the camera, and this is clearly a pet project for Roxburgh. I can't actually recall much of his acting work-I know the characters he has played in these older movies, but I have a hard time picturing his acting. He does some good simple work with the camera, and tells a rather complex relationship story. It's the old adage-predictable, but being well made and performed makes it well worthy seeing.
posted by Eric at
4:20 AM
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