Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Movie Review: Broken Hill

Title: Broken Hill
Author: N/A
Genre: drama, music, romance
My Rating: ***
Official Rating: PG
Age Group: 14+

Summary: Tommy is a young composer who is trapped in a town where no one seems to see, or rather hear, his brilliance. When he makes one bad choice, he ends up in a position that could possibly lead him to the biggest music school in Australia. Does he have what it takes to pull something together in three weeks? What if he's working with an unwilling partner and local inmates?

Word of Warning
  • The movie starts out with the finding of an injured man on the road. There is blood on his forehead and we find out that he might have died had he been left there. He is a local inmate who has escaped from jail several times, and was jailed for stealing diamonds.
  • Tommy is often distracted by his love interest and can become oblivious to everything else around him. His friend refers to this as obsessing, but Tommy objects, so his friend then calls it stalking, another term turned down, and finally settles on fancying her from afar.
  • Tommy is chased by a kid in a wheelchair who has spikes on his wheels. The scene is set to be dramatic, but we find out that it's just his friend and all a joke.
  • Tommy jokingly requests his friend roll over his neck with his wheelchair until he's dead--after getting laughed at by his love interest.
  • Tommy is misunderstood by his father and lies to him. The girl is also misunderstood and nearly ignored by her parents. It is assumed that Tommy works his problems but we have no idea what happens to the girl.
  • Words: jeez and prude (twice).
  • At first, the girl manipulates Tommy, using his crush on her to get her way. She flirts with him to get a ride and then tricks him into getting involved in driving her friends down the street so they can throw watermelons at houses, cars, windows, and other things (more on this later). She leans over and, in a whisper, suggests that if he go along with this "things are gonna get a little bit crazy." It's pretty clear how he interprets that.
  • Due to the watermelon trick, Tommy and the others end up arrested (after fleeing the police, which the girl also encourages). Tommy and the girl are given community service, the rest go free with a warning. Tommy's father leaves him to spend the night in jail instead of bringing him home like all the other parents.
  • The joking exchange, "I'd rather be run over by a truck." "I've got a truck."
  • Tommy's friend refers to the girl as hot more than once. He also calls her the American Honey (she's American, everyone else is Australian).
  • Tommy rides a motorcycle without a helmet and isn't all that careful about it. He also does some reckless driving for fun in the desert with his friend (using his dad's pick-up truck).
  • Man without a shirt seen lifting weights, then imagined as playing a violin (still shirtless).
  • One mention of strip and cavity searches for the prisoners.
  • Tommy signs a paper saying he did more community service hours than he did. This is largely due to the girl taunting him.
  • Tommy lies to his father. Later, he's kicked out of his house for it (tossed the duffle bag and told to leave).
  • Tommy is bowled over during what looks to be a football game (without the pads, but clearly a school event).
  • An older man tells a story of spirits creating the world one layer at a time (first it was too flat, so then came the hills, and the rivers, etc).
  • The girl's prom dress is a few inches above her knees and the V-neck is low but relatively concealing (no cleavage shown because of the way the dress is structured).
  • A man in the prison is often shown staring at the girl. At one point she looses it and shouts at him, "I don't know what prostitute I remind you of, but just stop staring at me." He reveals that she reminds him of his daughter, who has only seen him behind bars.
  • Three kisses.
  • The whole story revolves around a group of inmates becoming a band.
My Thoughts
The music was fantastic. The main character first sets out to create this band for selfish reasons, then does it for those involved. It was an interesting story. What more is there to say?
I wouldn't watch it again, but I don't regret the time I spent on it. I gave it the age recommendation of 14+ because of the innuendo mentioned above. It was a fun journey to go on, especially accompanied by music.

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