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Men's Group
[Fri 05/09/2008 12:16:25]
 Australia/104 mins/Titan View
Screening September 18
Director Michael Joy
Writers Michael Joy & John L. Simpson
Producer John L. Simpson
DOP Geoffrey Wharton ACS
Production designer Alexander Holmes
Editor Stuart Morley
Composer Haydn Walker
Key Cast Grant Dodwell, Paul Gleeson, Steve Le Marquand, Don Reid, Steve Rodgers, Paul Tassone, William Zappa
If Australian cinema moves in thematic cycles, one of the things this year will be remembered for is the extraordinarily divergent portrayals of Australian men and their emotional lives. We’ve seen examples in Ten Empty, Modern Love, Three Blind Mice and even Unfinished Sky. Now comes Men’s Group which might even be the defining film of this topical wave.
Directed by TV commercial director Michael Joy, Men’s Group tells the story of six men, strangers to each other until they start meeting regularly to address issues affecting their emotional lives. In the first encounter, most of the group admit to being there under duress, and don’t reveal much of themselves apart from this general reluctance to talk about their emotions. Alex (Dodwell) dominates proceeding with expletive-laden complaints about his son and the elderly Cecil (Reid) tries to impart advice to the younger attendees without revealing anything of himself.
Slowly, over many meetings, the revelation does occur but it’s not always pretty. Although the men are not easy stereotypes, they are all struggling with the tension of putting on a brave face despite the inner turmoil and outward pressure in their own lives.
Joy lightens the claustrophobic intimacy by taking the viewer out into each man’s separate lives, which often provides a stark contrast to what they describe in the meetings. The weekly men’s gathering is used as a lynchpin for all the narratives, where they come to talk about their week, and later, address topics like their fathers and childhood.
Joy worked with the individual actors to evolve each character over the months before shooting to develop elaborate backstories and it shows, particularly with the withdrawn characters of Moses (Tassone) and Lucas (Le Marquand) whose restrained performances belie the boiling pot of turmoil they seem to carry within. Contrastingly, the overweight Freddy (Rodgers, on a run of great roles) deals with his loneliness with histrionics and increasingly bleak humour.
The film moves in a slow dance of tension and release, with flashes of humour easing the tone when things get too uncomfortable. And they do, often. The film is soaked in realism, with some sequences taking on a heightened documentary feel, to the point that it is sometimes hard to watch the men reveling in their quiet desperation. But whilst hard it is not harrowing, but instead revelatory and, by the end, uplifting even. By delving deep into the hearts of men, Joy has crafted something quite transcendent.
SIMON DE BRUYN
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