THE TENDER HOOK

    SUMMARY

                'The Tender Hook' tells the story of a beautiful young woman, Iris, caught at the apex of a dangerous love triangle in 1920s Sydney. Iris resists becoming embroiled in the business affairs of her roguish English lover, McHeath, as she falls in love with McHeath's new protege, Art, an earnest young boxer. McHeath is provoked to acts of jealousy and violence, and Art persists in the only course he knows, as Iris's desires lead them all to an unexpected and destructive final destiny.

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DAVE G'S THE TENDER HOOK REVIEW:

          ‘The Tender Hook’ is proof that sometimes a good director and a brilliant cast can make a poor script and storyline look acceptable.

            This could have been a good film. The story of the beautiful Iris (Rose Byrne) in love with the young boxer, Art (Matthew Le Nevez) but ‘belonging’ to gangster, McHeath (Hugo Weaving), set during Post-War Sydney works well on paper, but is dangerously let down by a script that is one great big cliché, is full of weak dialogue and never allows the cast to shine as bright as they could have.

            Cast wise Hugo Weaving and Rose Byrne are standouts, while it is also nice to see Sea Patrol’s John Batchelor get a feature film job. The let down is Hugo Weaving, who tries his hardest to work with what he has, but flounders badly. This only adds to the fact that you dislike him even more, but it is tragic to see such a good actor pulled down in such a role.

            The other thing that saves ‘The Tender Hook’ is the wonderful cinematography that Jonathan Ogilvie manages to capture which not only gives a good sense of the time period of when the film is set but manages to take it into a Cate Shortland/David Lynch area.

            It may have been one of the most expensive Australian films of the year, but it proof that a big budget doesn’t always make a good film.

RATING:- ***  (out of 3/5)

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