There are some nice performances here, with Jai Courtney ( The Exception) particularly stoic and reserved as Michael’s reclusive father Tom. This is only the second feature film for director Shawn Seet (Two Fists, One Heart) who hails from a background in television, having worked on series like Underbelly, The Code and Love Child. Audiences will be captivated by the cute antics of the birds. It is the story about the friendship between the young Michael (played by newcomer Finn Little) and the pelicans that gives the film its heart and soul. Whereas the original story delivered its environmental messages with subtlety, this new version of Storm Boy delivers them with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. He reaches out to his 17-year-old granddaughter Madeline (Morgana Davies), a passionate advocate for the environment, and tells her of his childhood and the lessons he learned from his friendship with Mr Percival.Ĭue lots of extended flashbacks to his childhood. On the eve of a crucial board vote to approve the sale of a tract of family farmland to allow the expansion of mining interests, Michael wrestles with his conscience. He has since retired and left the running of the company to his son-in-law Malcolm (Erik Thomson). Michael Kingley became a multi-millionaire business man who ran a large pastoral corporation, a concept that jars somewhat with his youthful self. But for some reason, the producers and screenwriter Justin Monjo (who hails from a background in television having worked on series such as Farscape, and who also wrote Jungle for Greg McLean) have seen fit to include a clumsy framing device that centres around Michael as an old man (played now by Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush). This remake aims to introduce this timeless story to a whole new generation of film goers. Storm Boy also incorporated some wonderful themes about grief, father-son relationships, and the environment. He formed a special bond with the bird he christened Mr Percival, who became his best, and only friend, of his lonely childhood. Michael took the three birds back to their rustic shack and with the help of a local Aboriginal and his father nursed the birds back to health and raised them. One day he found three baby pelicans left orphaned after local hunters, opposed to the establishment of a bird sanctuary, had shot their mother. Adapted from Colin Thiele’s beloved 1964 novella, Storm Boy told the story of Michael, a young boy who lived along an isolated stretch of the South Australian coast with his emotionally scarred and widowed fisherman father Tom. Henry Safran’s 1976 film of Storm Boy was a heartfelt classic from the period of the re-emergence of the Australian film industry and it touched a generation of filmgoers. I enjoyed it, but am not inclined to watch it again due to the lack of drama.Coming-of-age stories about the unconventional but uplifting friendship between children and animals have been a staple of cinema for years. I loved the scenes where they showed his character remembering being a child on the beach, and they showed him sat next to his younger self. I became a fan of his after The King’s Speech. My favourite actor though, was of course Geoffrey Rush. He also represents indigenous Australia, echoing the friction between Europeans and Aborigines as well as between man and nature. He’s the character who keeps the main character grounded and focussed. My favourite character is the ‘oracle’ character in Storm Boy is an Aboriginal man named Fingerbone Bill (Trevor Jamieson) is a good anchor to the film. As the undercurrent of the story is habitat destruction, I was hoping for an Erin Brockovich sort of film with heated arguments about environmental law and protests in the name of the pelicans!īut none of that really happens, it’s just a quiet film about looking after birds. Sadly, it lacks the grunt I was expecting of it. It’s essentially a slow-paced, emotional drama. However, I think anybody who has read the novel or seen the 1976 Storm Boy film will adore it. This is a largely unknown and only briefly advertised film, which is a shame. Why is it called Storm Boy? Because according to Aboriginal beliefs, pelicans are the reincarnation of men who died at sea so every time a pelican is killed, a storm is bound to follow. Once nursed back to health and released into the wild, one pelican stays behind with the boy and never left his side. Storm Boy is a story about a boy who rescues three pelicans in an isolated coastal area of Southern Australia called 90 Mile Beach. Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Jai Courtney, Finn Little, Trevor Jamieson, Morgana Davies and Erik Thomson
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