GETTIN' SQUARE

Australia, 2003, 100 minutes, Colour.
Sam Worthington, David Wenham, Gary Sweet, Timothy Spall, David Fields, John Brumpton.

An unexpected critical and box-office hit in Australia. It won Best Screenplay at the 200s Australian Film Institute awards and Best Actor for David Wenham (best known internationally as Fr Damian in Paul Cox's Molokai). Whether it will travel beyond Australian shores is another matter.

Since Australia was founded as a convict settlement, it is not surprising that stories about prisoners are fairly common. When they are linked with stories of losers who have an ironic sense of humour, they are popular. However, how they express their sense of humour, slang and accent may be hard on the foreign ear (just look at the body language instead!)

Getting square means getting rehabilitated (which is not exactly what most of the characters here are able to achieve). It also means getting even. They are much better at this.

Sam Worthington is the hero who has spent eight years on a murder charge, a murder he did not commit. His mother's ex-boyfriend tries to have a hold over him as does a corrupt cop. However, he is employed, when he gets out, by a weight-watchers enthusiast restaurant owner who has had some money laundering deals in his time. He is played to great effect by Timothy Spall.

However, the scene stealer is David Wenham as a comically whining addict who wants to keep out of trouble but can't and who gets caught up in the money laundering deals. His scenes in the courtroom where he manages to confuse everyone with what his evidence is and, more importantly, are they paying his bus ticket money home are some of the best in Australian comedy.

It all ends up legally OK and, possibly, morally OK.

1. The critical acclaim for the film? Box office success? Australian Film Institute awards for script and David Wenham? Its catching the popular attitude in Australia in 2003?

2. An Australian perspective on life, Australian images, the battlers, the losers, criminals and the police?

3. The Queensland settings, the jails, homes, restaurants, the suburbs, the Gold Coast? The musical score?

4. The title, its meaning of getting rehabilitated - and also meaning getting even?

5. The impact of the opening, the initial robbery, the masked men, the voice-over explanation, the range of criminals, the shooting, the response? The irony of discovering what the real story was? The actual plan, the reality and the twist at the end?

6. The prisoners and their style, life in the prison, the comic series of parole interviews - and the unlikely release of the prisoners? Yet their being released! The ironies? Getting out and getting square?

7. The hero, his eight years in prison, the interview, getting out, leaving, the prison guards, being picked up? The meeting with Anne, the past friendship, her being a probation officer? His relationship with his brother, the sense of responsibility to keep him on the straight and narrow? The importance of his mother, the influence, the past story and her relationship with Chika? De Viers and his taunting of the hero, his hold over him? The hero seeking a job, the range of interviews, his having a criminal record and the refusal despite his skills? Going to see the owner of the restaurant, the interview, his assistant? Success? De Viers coming to the restaurant and putting pressure on? At home, Joey and the link with Chika, the boat, trying to get him away from Chika? The friendship with Spiteri, from jail, giving him the lift, the probation issues in giving him a lift, the friendship, the money, the plan? His sympathy for Spiteri, the set-up of the robbery? Getting comeuppance on De Viers? The taping of the interviews, his being arrested? The hero and his helping Spiteri (to get to Israel) and making a new life? The ups and downs of his relationship with Anne, the restaurant, her visits, verbal clashes, in love?

8. Chika, criminal, his police links, the background of his relationship with the boy's mother, his taking on Joey and getting him jobs? The clash with the hero? The boat, the pressures? De Viers, the money-laundering, the police investigations, the court cases, his agreeing to the final robbery - and his comeuppance?

9. David Wenham as Spiteri, appearance, manner, way of speaking, drug addict, out of prison after the parole interview? His goals, his need for money, his being smart yet appearing stupid, the whole issue of money-laundering, delivery, doing it for the restaurant owner? The collapse of the money-laundering firm, the Inland Revenue, his arrest? The discussions with the officials, his going to court, his performance in court, a star comic turn, his twisting all the questions, the long sequence of his appeal for bus money? The final plan, his being wired, the robbery, the twist in the way the robbery was carried out, his being shot, considered dead, the postcard from Israel?

10. The restaurant owner, his criminal background, from England, the importance of weight loss? His friendship with his assistant - and the assistant being friendly but absolutely dumb? His wife, the importance of the money, the crooked lawyer? The collapse of the firm? The authorities, employing the hero, his success in the kitchen, the wife and the management of the restaurant? His having to go to Brisbane, leaving the restaurant to his wife, returning and finding the extraordinary success? The deal with the hero, the money, the ownership of the restaurant? His getting away clean?

11. The crooked lawyer, carrying on with his assistant, his wife catching him, her putting him in to the authorities? The criminals and their having to find the alternative way of laundering the money? The plan to rob this man? Chika, his involvement, De Viers? The irony of the money being robbed and disappearing?

12. Anne, the childhood friendship, her work, the restaurant, the clashes, the happy ending?

13. De Viers and the tradition of corrupt Queensland police, his hold over the hero, his friendship with Chika? The plan, the taped interviews, the expose, his trying to escape, his being ruined, the newspaper reports?

14. The sketch of other criminals, the comic criminals, the serious criminals and their money-laundering and their violence?

15. The title, the ironies of Australian rehabilitation, losers becoming winners, dishonesty and honesty? The ocker happy ending?