Bending the rules

Football and fair play are not necessarily synonymous, as anyone who has played or even follows the sport will appreciate. But when hormonally charged teenagers and race relations are put in the mix, the line between life and sport becomes very blurred. At least, that's the basic starting point for Paul Goodman's film, Australian Rules.

The film is based on the phenomenally successful book "Deadly, Unna?"; a book widely included in school curricula. That may give some inkling that the film's primary focus is on teenagers, and teen angst certainly plays a major role in the plot. Probably its closest cousin in recent times would be Tim Blake Nelson's film O, a teen adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, and a film that also had its fair share of controversy. Goldman's film is a brave attempt at melding the disparate elements of the story, but in the end, it never quite comes together as a cohesive whole.

It also suffers from an inability to translate its teen themes to a wider audience. Prospect Bay is a small community in rural South Australia. The local football team has just made it to the regional grand final - making it the biggest thing to happen to the town for 20 years. Coached by the well-meaning but none-too-bright "Arks" (Kevin Harrington), the team is made up of boys from the town and from the nearby Aboriginal mission settlement. Although Arks' son is the captain, the team revolves around Dumby Red (Luke Carroll), its star forward; who happens to hail from the mission. Dumby is best mates with Blacky (Nathan Phillips), a town boy. For Blacky, life is divided between school, football and meeting the expectations of his domineering father (Simon Westaway). He also finds himself increasingly attracted to Clarence (Lisa Flanagan), Dumby's sister. But when the team's ruck rover is injured, the task is given to the inexperienced Blacky. As game day approaches, the hopes of the town are being pinned on the team.

Although Australian Rules seeks to address some important issues about race relations in this country, it never quite manages to break out of its teen drama mindset. While this is fine in terms of a film for teenagers, older audiences may find its approach rather simplistic and frankly not very subtle. Its other major problem is that the crucial plot point in the film simply doesn't ring true.

For all that though, the film is nicely paced, and manages to keep a wry sense of humour virtually throughout. The football sequences are excitingly staged and Goldman makes good use of the seaside locations.

Australian Rules tries hard to bring issues affecting youth, particularly rural youth, to light. That however necessarily involves a fairly obtuse approach to the material, and it's there that the film will fall down for older audiences. At times lapsing into melodrama and cliché, it never quite manages to rise above TV movie status; despite some nice moments, particularly towards the end. So while Australian Rules deserves to be seen by teen audiences, adults are likely to be looking out for the final siren.

David Edwards