Three Dollars

Another Australian film which didn't disappoint.Its about an engineer in the public service who has a wife, young daughter and a mortgage and who, at the film's end, has only three dollars in his bank account. The star was David Wenham who vies with Sam Neill for the top spot on my favourite actors list.

The producer and director were both at the screening and they said Three Dollars was intended to be an indictment of Autralia under John Howard. They also said that this was the third film they'd made together with David Wenham in the lead role. We've seen the second of the three (The Bank) which is a great film in which a little guy gets one up on a big corporate. You could say in Three Dollars that the establishment gets back at the little guy.

While there are definitely some laughs, this was a blacker film overall than Look Both Ways. It is certainly life-affirming but not necessarily uplifting.

My rating: 4/5

The movie-going experience last night was enhanced by seeing three little blue penguins on the rocks in front of Frank Kitts Park. The first one was swimming and obligingly hopped out of the water on to the rocks and shook itself while I watched. Further along there were two more penguins who hopped in and out of the water more than once