The Hard Word
| Year: | 2002 |
| Director: | Scott Roberts |
| Cast: | Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, Robert Taylor, Joel Edgerton, Damien Richardson, Vince Colosimo |
A pretty successful melding of the old Aussie crim drama style updated for audiences in a post Pulp Fiction world. Brothers Dale, Shane and Malcolm Twentyman (Pearce, looking filthy and sick, Edgerton and Richardson) have a running robbery deal with their crooked lawyer (Taylor) and two crooked cops, but they're retiring.
The archetypal 'one last job' comes up thanks to bit of blackmail from the lawyer - who may or not be screwing Dale's wife Carol (Griffiths). After ripping off the Melbourne Cup, it becomes a game of who's playing who, and who gets away with the loot. More a comedy than a serious crime drama - taking a fun look at the low lives and sleazebags who make robbery their living. Pretty good ockerish performances, and Pearce is showing a bit of range.
A completely unrelated subplot of Edgerton falling in love with his prison anger management counsellor - apparently an Oedipal thing - which goes nowhere. A bit of fun done a million times elsewhere but always a kick to see it set in Australia with actors playing Australians in it.
The archetypal 'one last job' comes up thanks to bit of blackmail from the lawyer - who may or not be screwing Dale's wife Carol (Griffiths). After ripping off the Melbourne Cup, it becomes a game of who's playing who, and who gets away with the loot. More a comedy than a serious crime drama - taking a fun look at the low lives and sleazebags who make robbery their living. Pretty good ockerish performances, and Pearce is showing a bit of range.
A completely unrelated subplot of Edgerton falling in love with his prison anger management counsellor - apparently an Oedipal thing - which goes nowhere. A bit of fun done a million times elsewhere but always a kick to see it set in Australia with actors playing Australians in it.