2008
Nakatomi Pictures
Accent
R4 DVD
Reviewer: Bob Estreich
This film
reminds me a lot of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 classic Straw Dogs. A mild-mannered
man is harassed by local thugs and puts up with it until his home is invaded.
Then he turns vicious and shows that every man has his limits.
No Through Road
is Australian director Sam Barrett’s first feature film and despite the
similarities with Straw Dogs he has made his own film, not just a remake.
Richard (played
strongly by James Helm) is a photographer living in a quiet house at the end of
a suburban cul-de-sac. One night he finds a bloodied and frightened girl named
Samantha (Megan Palinkas) hiding in his home. She is frightened and doesn’t
want to tell him what has happened to her, nor for him to call the police.
Outside a group of thugs is parked at the end of the street and when she sees
them Samantha becomes even more terrified.
One of the thugs knocks at the door and wants Richard to hand over
Samantha. He says he is her neighbour and she is running a drug lab in her house.
He wants to take her and hand her over to the police. His story is unconvincing
and Richard refuses.
Richard is now
faced with every man’s nightmare – what do you do in an unfamiliar and
frightening situation? The best he can think of is to ring a policeman friend
of his father’s. The cop is murdered by one of the thugs and Richard is now in
no doubt that his own life is in danger as well. He prepares to defend his
home. The thugs try to break in and he successfully drives them off after
seriously injuring two of them with boiling water and an old sword that
belonged to his father.
At this point
the story loses any similarity with Straw Dogs. Richard and Samantha leave the
house to call for help but are captured by the waiting thugs. One of them wants
revenge on Samantha for a jail term he served, and his friends want vengeance
on Richard for their injuries. Their vengeance is terrible. So is Richard’s.
The film is a
little unusual for an Australian one. Typically many Australian films tend to
be a bit over the top in violence, with somewhat caricatured acting and plot.
This one is just a good solid vengeance film. Despite the violence and
bloodshed it never loses sight of the plot. This makes it far more believable
than, say Wolf Creek.
This is helped
by the acting. Barrett, Richie Flanagan, Keagan Kang and George Shevtsov who
play the young thugs. They could almost be a normal group of 20-something
football fans if it wasn’t for their homicidal tendencies. If there is a
disappointing role in the film it is the part of Samantha. Megan Palinkas is a
competent actress but the script doesn’t give her much to work with. Mostly she
is expected to hide and whimper, and without her true role becoming obvious
earlier in the film it’s a waste of her talent.
Although I
thought the film would have been cut fairly severely for violence, it seems to
have survived intact.
No Through Road
did the rounds of the independent film festivals for about a year before being
picked up by Accent Underground. It has managed awards at various foreign film
festivals but did particularly well on its home ground at the Western
Australian Screen Awards in 2008. No Through Road took out Best Director, Best
Editing, Best Actor and Best Sound. It just shows what you can do with $6,500
and a lot of dedication.
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This
review will appear in Volume 2 No.4
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