Heart and humor mask serious flaws
By Jake Coyle |
March 31, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
"THE Sapphires" is missing a lot - detailed characters, a unique narrative arc, half-plausible scenes of the Vietnam War - but it's got two uncommon things going for it: genuine charm and Chris O'Dowd.
O'Dowd, the Irish comedic actor, has no proper business being in "The Sapphires," a film about four Aboriginal sisters in rural 1960s Australia who set out to make it as a pop singing group. But this is the same actor who managed to play a Milwaukee police officer with his natural brogue in "Bridesmaids."
In "The Sapphires," he plays a heavy-drinking former cruise ship entertainer named Dave who has somehow wound up in an Australian backwater hosting a rinky-dink talent show. The film first greets him passed out in the back of his car with "Soul Man" playing, the joke being this boozer is not exactly a shining star of Motown.
But, he insists, the music is in his veins: "My blood runs Negro," he says, a joke to everyone but him. And when he sees three sisters - Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell) and Julie (Jessica Mauboy) - perform a Merl Saunders tune, he's blown away. He tells them to ditch country music for soul and soon they (along with an estranged fourth sister, Kay, played by Shari Sebbens) are off to entertain US soldiers in Vietnam with Dave as manager.
Similar to Bill Murray in the 1970s, O'Dowd enlivens the otherwise thin but buoyant film with his winning charisma. He's the off-color, off-key salvation to this bright and simple Australian period musical.
The directorial debut of Aussie actor Wayne Blair, the film is most concerned with the sisterhood of its singers. They're painted broadly but entertainingly: Gail, played forcefully and memorably by Mailman, is the proud eldest; Cynthia is the eager carouser; Julie has the soaring lead voice; and Kay is awakening to her ethnicity. They constantly vacillate between bickering and singing.
As the film moves to Vietnam, its less expert filmmaking and inauthentic settings are hard to forgive. But even when "The Sapphires" is at its cheesiest, O'Dowd and the film's warm spirit make it a tune hard to resist.
O'Dowd, the Irish comedic actor, has no proper business being in "The Sapphires," a film about four Aboriginal sisters in rural 1960s Australia who set out to make it as a pop singing group. But this is the same actor who managed to play a Milwaukee police officer with his natural brogue in "Bridesmaids."
In "The Sapphires," he plays a heavy-drinking former cruise ship entertainer named Dave who has somehow wound up in an Australian backwater hosting a rinky-dink talent show. The film first greets him passed out in the back of his car with "Soul Man" playing, the joke being this boozer is not exactly a shining star of Motown.
But, he insists, the music is in his veins: "My blood runs Negro," he says, a joke to everyone but him. And when he sees three sisters - Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell) and Julie (Jessica Mauboy) - perform a Merl Saunders tune, he's blown away. He tells them to ditch country music for soul and soon they (along with an estranged fourth sister, Kay, played by Shari Sebbens) are off to entertain US soldiers in Vietnam with Dave as manager.
Similar to Bill Murray in the 1970s, O'Dowd enlivens the otherwise thin but buoyant film with his winning charisma. He's the off-color, off-key salvation to this bright and simple Australian period musical.
The directorial debut of Aussie actor Wayne Blair, the film is most concerned with the sisterhood of its singers. They're painted broadly but entertainingly: Gail, played forcefully and memorably by Mailman, is the proud eldest; Cynthia is the eager carouser; Julie has the soaring lead voice; and Kay is awakening to her ethnicity. They constantly vacillate between bickering and singing.
As the film moves to Vietnam, its less expert filmmaking and inauthentic settings are hard to forgive. But even when "The Sapphires" is at its cheesiest, O'Dowd and the film's warm spirit make it a tune hard to resist.
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