The Black Balloon
… and for those of you who are thinking about those ads with black balloons coming out of electric appliances to show how much greenhouse gases they produce… no, not those ones.
Australian film The Black Balloon sneaks up on you, making in-roads into your heart while you giggle at the daggy army-issue camo and moustache of Erik Thomson’s Simon, wonder at Toni Collette’s patient and unconditionally loving Maggie, wrestle with feelings of pity, sympathy and joy for Luke Ford’s Charlie, and follow the journey - slight though it seems at times - of Rhys Wakefield’s Thomas, who starts to accept his brother’s difference with the help and encouragement of Gemma Ward’s school beauty Jackie.
It’s a slowly-paced film, to be sure, and you have to be in the mood for that. But it’s beautifully shot, with scenes that contain a large proportion of silence still satisfying due to the visuals. I particularly enjoyed the feeling of the period (late 80s) and while the story was perhaps archetypal, I thought that Gemma Ward (model) and Rhys Wakefield (ex-soap actor) acquitted themselves very well in roles that veered away from cliché boy-meets-girl toward something that felt more original and honest.
Australian film The Black Balloon sneaks up on you, making in-roads into your heart while you giggle at the daggy army-issue camo and moustache of Erik Thomson’s Simon, wonder at Toni Collette’s patient and unconditionally loving Maggie, wrestle with feelings of pity, sympathy and joy for Luke Ford’s Charlie, and follow the journey - slight though it seems at times - of Rhys Wakefield’s Thomas, who starts to accept his brother’s difference with the help and encouragement of Gemma Ward’s school beauty Jackie.
It’s a slowly-paced film, to be sure, and you have to be in the mood for that. But it’s beautifully shot, with scenes that contain a large proportion of silence still satisfying due to the visuals. I particularly enjoyed the feeling of the period (late 80s) and while the story was perhaps archetypal, I thought that Gemma Ward (model) and Rhys Wakefield (ex-soap actor) acquitted themselves very well in roles that veered away from cliché boy-meets-girl toward something that felt more original and honest.