Sweet Talker
Critical review And Bibliography
By Alfredo Gutierrez
Part 1: Film Information
Cast
& Credits
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Full Cast |
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Harry Reynolds |
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Julie Maguire |
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David Maguire |
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Gerald Bostock |
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'Uncle' Cec |
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Norman Foster |
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Mayor Jim Scraper |
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Billy |
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Giles |
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Sgt. Watts |
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Mr. Thomas |
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Larsen |
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Harold Lewis |
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Bluey |
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Officer |
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Officer |
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Coin Dealer |
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Businessman |
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Businessman |
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Bus Driver |
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Junkie |
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Salesperson |
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Salesperson |
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Salesperson |
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Salesperson |
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Taxi Driver |
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Credits
Director …. Michael
Jenkins
Producer …. Ben Gannon
Original Story …. Bryan Brown
Tony Morphett
Director of Photography …. Russell Boyd
Editor …. Neil Thumpston
Composer …. Peter Filleul
Richard
Thompson
Screenwriter …. Tony Morphett
Production Designer …. John Stoddart
Casting …. Liz Mullinar
Art Direction …. John Wingrove
Costume Design …. Terry Ryan
Production Companies
Australian Film Commission
Confidence Productions
New Town Films Pty. Ltd.
New Visions Picture
Distributors
GUO
New Line Cinema
Pioneer Entertainment
Roadshow Home Video
Seven Arts pictures
Also
Known As:
Confidence (1991)
Runtime: 86 min
Country: Australia
Language: English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Dolby
Certification: Australia:PG / Norway:11 / USA:PG
Release Dates and Box Office Information
For this movie the information regarding box office figures were somewhat limited. The only info I could find was that the film grossed $382,510 (USA). And the release dates are as follow:
USA – May 10th 1991
Australia – November 7th 1991
France – March 16th 1994
Filmmakers Interviews
I could not
find much about the director of this film other than its place and year of
birth, New South Wales, Australia, 1946. I also managed to find a list of his
career work in directing. What was very noticeable was the fact that for the
most part all of his previous work was done for TV only.
1. "Young Lions" (2002) TV Series
2. "Wildside" (1997) TV Series
3.
"Blue
Murder" (1995) (mini) TV Series
5.
Leaving
of Liverpool, The (1992) (TV)
6.
Sweet
Talker (1991)
... aka Confidence (1991)
7.
"Police
Rescue" (1990) TV Series
8. "Dirtwater Dynasty, The"
(1988) (mini) TV
Series
10.
Shark's
Paradise (1986) (TV)
11.
"Gillies
Republic, The" (1986) TV Series
12.
Rebel
(1985)
13.
"Scales
of Justice" (1983) (mini) TV Series
14.
"Five
Mile Creek" (1983) TV Series
15. "One Day Miller" (1979) TV Series
16.
"Bailey's
Bird" (1977) TV Series
17.
"Pig
in a Poke" (1977) TV Series
18.
"Rush"
(1974) TV Series
19.
"Certain
Women" (1973) TV Series
20. "Bellbird" (1967) TV Series
The Co-writer of this film, Tony Morphett, has a very extense filmography to better illustrate this here are some of his latest projects.
2.
"MDA"
(2002) TV Series (writer)
3.
"Young
Lions" (2002) TV Series (writer)
4.
"Above
the Law" (2000) TV Series (writer)
5. Don't Look Behind You (1999) (TV) (teleplay)
... aka Du entkommst mir nicht (1999) (TV) (Germany)
7.
"Kings
in Grass Castles" (1997) (mini) TV Series
8.
"Water
Rats" (1996) TV Series (creator) (writer) (episode "As
Fast as You Can") (writer) (episode "Closed Circuit") (writer)
(episode "Dead in the Water: Part 1") (writer) (episode "Dead in
the Water: Part 2") (writer) (episode "Deadfall") (writer) (episode
"The Drill") (writer) (episode "The Gingerbread Man")
(writer) (episode "I'm Home") (writer) (episode "In the Family
Way") (writer) (episode "Let the Dead") (writer) (episode
"Mr. Medium") (writer) (episode "New Kids on the Block")
(writer) (episode "Recalled to Duty") (writer) (episode "Red
Ice") (writer) (episode "Reunion") (writer) (episode "The
Shaft") (writer) (episode "Shroud Lines") (writer) (episode
"Smile") (writer) (episode "Switchback") (writer) (episode
"V.I.P") (writer) (episode "Wrecked")
9.
"Mirror,
Mirror" (1995) (mini) TV Series
10.
"Heartbreak
High" (1994) TV Series (writer)
12.
"Sky
Trackers" (1994) TV Series (co-creator)
13.
"Blue
Heelers" (1994) TV Series
15.
"Secrets"
(1993) TV Series (writer)
16.
"Tracks
of Glory" (1991) (mini) TV Series
17.
Sweet
Talker (1991) (story)
... aka Confidence (1991)
19. "Bangkok Hilton" (1989)
(mini) TV
Series (story)
Critical
Reviews
For this movie finding any kind of
reviews has been extremely difficult. The movie obviously did not stir much
excitement when it was released, hence, the lack of reviews. Despite the fact
that it was hard to find reviews due to the lack of the movie’s online presence
I found a couple of reviews professional and non-professional.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103015/usercomments
http://www.filmsondisc.com/dvdpages/sweet_talker.htm
http://www.deseretnews.com/movies/view/1,1257,1787,00.html
http://www.dvdlaser.com/search/detail.cfm?id=1999
(No actual reviews were posted on these site, just wanted to make a point,
which is the lack of reviews and info)
http://www.amctv.com/show/review?CID=60451-EST
http://www.killermovies.com/s/sweettalker/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/SweetTalker-1036127/preview.php
Research
Method
My research was done through the help
of the World Wide Web. I thought the web would be the only source in which I
could find something regarding the film I chose since the movie had no
nominations of any kind and was overall very poor movie, plot-wise. First I
searched the traditional film search engines, Yahoo, IMDB and Google. Most of
them lead to the same information, which for the most part was the same that I
found in IMDB. Reviews of any kind were extremely scarce, but still managed to
find a couple. Another Method that I found somewhat more effective was reading
papers that were previously written for this class, specifically the bibliographical
information, and from there just type in a different search. I didn’t think
that any information would have been found in any kind of published media,
since the web showed lack of information for this particular film, so I saved
some time by not looking in this particular type of media.
Part 2: Critical Review of Film and its
Literature
Synopsis
(as given by filmsondisc.com
website)
Bryan Brown stars as con-man Harry Reynolds in this clever
conceit from Down Under. Recently released from a stint in prison with an older
con, Cec, played with his usual spunk Aussie mainstay Bill Kerr, Harry pilfers
Cec's "scheme of the century" before jovially sauntering out of
prison and on to the con at the quaint but dilapidated seaside village of
Beachport. At Beachport Harry boards with divorcee Julie and her son David.
Karen Allen is charming and appealingly energetic as Julie, providing Harry
with some love to get in the way of the con. Harry's bonds quickly with David,
gets the low-down on the village from him, and spends plenty of quality time
spinning tales and catching fish with the savvy ten year old boy.
The scheme may be lightweight, but the execution is consistently brisk. Harry
has everybody and their uncle looking to invest in the raising of a long lost
Portuguese treasure ship. With the uncovering of the ship, Harry's vision
includes a rebirth of Beachport as resort, a Disney World of the South Seas.
Bryan Brown is a cunning Harry. There's excellent chemistry
amongst all the players. Justin Rosniak is fine as David and the supporting
characters of Beachport add to the joy of the film. It looks like this was a
delightful production for all concerned.
My Opinion
Despite the
fact that the film was extremely predictable it was somewhat entertaining. The
over used formula where good triumphs over evil makes the story line very
boring mostly because it is so easy to predict. As a consequence of this the
audience, me and maybe 100 more people who have seen this movie, looses
interest quickly. But even though the movie was very predictable the two main
characters Harry and Julie had a very nice screen chemistry that made the plot
more bearable. I could see that the writers tried very hard to make the
secondary characters, most of the townspeople, “funny” to some extent. I assume
that they tried to do this in order to move the attention from the actual plot
to the characters’ “funny” actions and peculiar characteristics. They also
tried giving importance to characters that in the end weren’t really important.
In their attempt to make the story as whole more important they ended up
creating characters which attempted to be funny but in the end were really
dumb, furthermore by trying to bring more characters into the storyline they
oversaturated the plot of the story and then finished it with a quick
unfulfilling resolution.
Critical
Uptake
To be
honest there is none, for the exception of a couple of reviews that I found in
the web. Half of the reviews that I found were not even professional reviews they
are given by users in the IMDB website. The reviews though had different views
on the film. The two professional reviews were on the same page. They both
agreed that the movie from the begging had “set its sights on a modest target”
(Filmsondisc.com). This meant that the movie from the begging was meant to be a
B-class film. This film was not expected to be critically acclaimed or huge in
the box office but more of a summer fun movie that could be enjoyed by the
entire family. And even though the story was not very creative and interesting
the production as a whole was very enjoyable. You could appreciate the great
scenery shots, the music score (which had a very Australian touch to it), and
the acting skills of the main characters. On the other hand the reviews given by users in the IMDB
website agreed and disagreed. They both agreed that the movie was a B-class
movie that used the good versus evil formula to develop its plot. Furthermore,
they criticize the fact that the movie was a cheap remake of the 1962 The Music
Man. The reviews written by the IMDB users went something like this; even
though the theme used for the movie is somewhat overused and not very creative
you can not criticize the way the story line is executed because the production
is good overall.
Production
and Release Info
Production
and release information was no where to be found for this film. I searched in
the usual spots to try and find any release plan that was intended for this
film, but found absolutely nothing. I went to IMDB and all I could find was the
cast, credits, production company and that was it. Then typed “Australian
Cinema” in yahoo many results came up, but none of them seemed to address my
specific query. The Australian Film Commission didn’t have the film in its archives
and UrbanCineFile.com didn’t either. I tried many other web sites but nothing
came up. So I’m assuming that there is nothing to be found.
Prior
Work of Filmmakers
In the list
with all of the director’s prior work, which was previously shown, it is very
obvious that the director had little experience when it came to feature movies.
He had plenty of experience when it came to TV series but almost none when it
came to features. Before directing Sweet Talker he had only directed to other
movies, Rebel (1985) and Emerald City (1988), but even though he had little
experience in with feature length films he did a great job directing Sweet
Talker.
For Bryan
Brown however it was a different story. For Brown this was not only a movie in
which he had the leading role but also one in which he participated in as a
writer. He co-wrote the film with Tony Morphett, an experienced TV series
writer. This was Browns first attempt to write a movie, and even though the
movie was not very successful the story was well written. But the lack of
experience that Brown had in writing he made up with his 23 already filmed
films he had participated in before this production.
Tony
Morphett on the other hand started his writing career in 1969 with the TV
series Delta. By the time he wrote Sweet talker he had written about 30
different productions, this included feature movies, mini series and regular TV
series. So unlike Brown, Morphett had many years of experience when it came to
writing.
Current
Place in Australian Cinema
This is a
hard question to answer since this movie is nowhere to be found in the
Australian film landscape. Hopefully Australian cinema will never be compared
with this film in particular. This movie, even though enjoyable, is far from
good compared to the good Australian comedies such as The Dish, The Castle, and
The Panel. Unlike the previously stated films it fails to use the true
Australian humor which for the most part is a very black, satirical, and
cynical (to some extent) kind of humor. Even though this movie tries to evoke a
visual humor, which is the most obvious type of comedy (like clown humor), it
even fails at doing this. So I hope that this movie is not considered when it
comes to Australian comedies because it would truly give this genre a bad
reputation. If this movie had to be situated in any kind of genre I would
definitely situate in the comedy genre, but not in the Australian comedy genre
more in the American comedy genre. Why? Because this film seems to address all
of the characteristics that American comedies always have. Also because the
movie is a remake of the American film The Music man. So in my opinion I think
that this movie even though Australian should not be considered when talking
about Australian comedy.