June
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Top End Wedding (2019)
At first glance, Top End Wedding (2019) appears to be aimed exclusively at its home market, with all the trimmings of Aussie rom-com cliches, plotlines, and characters. For the first two-thirds of its run time, that’s exactly what you get in a moderately entertaining format. Then it suddenly becomes a very different film.
Ambitious young Indigenous lawyer Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) is promoted on the same day her boyfriend Ned (Gwilym Lee) quits his job. Before she can tell him the news, he pops the question and her promotion is immediately overshadowed by wedding plans. She has ten days leave from her new position and insists that their wedding take place in her home town Darwin, in the ‘Top End’ of Australia. When they get there, Lauren’s mother Daffy (Ursula Yovich) has disappeared, and her neurotic Aussie dad believes she has run off with her personal trainer. The couple embark on a road trip to find Daffy because Lauren will not wed without mum by her side.
It’s a corny narrative arc, full of slapstick, outback gags, and Ozploitation humour. But it also gives the camera an excuse to dwell on the beauty of Australia’s rugged interior: wide landscapes, cavernous spaces, and endless rich red earth. This travelogue for an ancient land full of wonder moves onto the Tiwi Islands, a little-known sanctuary of tradition in today’s troubled world. At this point the film switches from cornball to a poetic essay on family bonding and cultural belonging. There are many emotionally rich scenes of reconciliation, reconnection, and ancient customs that will bring the tissues out in any cinema.
This is a mixed film with several quality ingredients. However, it’s achievement boils down to three things: the authenticity, charm, and emotive range of Miranda Tapsell; the sincerity with which the film concludes this universal tale of belonging; and cinematography that is especially sympathetic to its subject. A picky review might point at the tepid ‘rom’ part of this rom-com and ask whether Gwilym Lee has the chemistry for working with Tapsell. It could also ask why Ned had to propose on the day he quit his job, or how Lauren’s slave-driver boss turns up as wedding coordinator. But this and other trivial issues do not detract from the film’s bigger charm.
Top End Wedding goes well beyond being an entertaining story about the importance of belonging. Released into the midst of a national debate on a constitutional voice for our First Peoples, it is a message-stick reminding us that the Australian national identity is incomplete until we embrace our Indigenous heritage.
Director: Wayne Blair
Stars: Miranda Tapsell, Gwilym Lee, Ursula Yovich
CineMuseFilms 
I’m amazed by the number of my contemporaries who report having LOVED this film and who have seen fit to award it 4.5-5 stars.
“But it also gives the camera an excuse to dwell on the beauty of Australia’s rugged interior: wide landscapes, cavernous spaces, and endless rich red earth. This travelogue for an ancient land full of wonder moves onto the Tiwi Islands, a little-known sanctuary of tradition in today’s troubled world.”
Were it not for the glorious footage of the top-end Australian landscape and it’s exploration of indigenous culture, it would have been very mediocre fare IMHO.
“At this point the film switches from cornball to a poetic essay on family bonding and cultural belonging.”
I agree Richard. These aspects lifted the film above the mundane, though I wanted to like it more than I did.
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Cinephiles are forgiving creatures. By two-thirds in, I was over the silly rom-rom stuff but the way it finished turned me into a fan. I gave it three and a half stars for its final third only.
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This is a nice review of what sounds like a difficult film to review without skewering. I haven’t hear of it or seen it, but will watch it if I come across it somewhere.
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Good to hear from you Linda.
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I’m woefully behind in my reading, Richard. No excuses. I’m retired, for Pete’s sake. I should have time to spare. But it seems a day never lasts quite long enough to get to everything that I had hoped to do.
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Retirement is a funny place to hang; so much time on offer, but it fills so easily.
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Hi Richard
Another excellent review. I don’t have to be a film buff to appreciate how well written these reviews are. But I wonder how you select the films you go to see? For eg, the Long Shot seemed to me to have been not worth reviewing, whilst I am sure there must be others more worthy of attention. That would be fine except that you now seem not to have time to review more films than a couple each month. Sometimes too, you choose films that have been out there for months when most film critics I see on the ABC/TV or hear on RN, fall over themselves to be the first with the latest.
Also, a general comment: It’s a pity the local film industry (if one can call it an industry) can’t have a bigger international audience. I envisage that one could take the storyline of Top End Wedding, even with the weak bits, and set it in LA or Nebraska, and all concerned would make a packet from it the first weekend release…Cheers, OT
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Good question and interesting comment OT. Firstly, I’m not that far behind the front edge of reviews for new releases in Australia as they are always currently screening. The criteria for selection is an interesting query. As a freelancer, I own nothing to any publishing entity so I can choose what appears interesting given the inescapable demographic slot in which I live. Some choices turn sour, like Long Shot which on the surface promised to be a political satire; bad call. I still try to publish weekly, unless life gets in the way. You are right about the universal aspect of Top End Wedding; I’ll be interested to see how it fares in overseas markets. Thanks for dropping by.
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I was gonna see this cos its Aussie, but yeah aussie rom coms can be really bad. There is one really good one – The Infinite Man. Its a trippy film, check it out!
https://epilepticmoondancer.net/2014/10/12/337/
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Now that Infinite Man is one really wild narrative arc Jordan.
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when you see it play out its even crazier. Its a rom com at heart, but one with cool sci-fi elements in there too. I’ve never seen a film quite like it before or since
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