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Australia 2008
Directed by
Shawn Seet
105 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
3 stars

Two Fists, One Heart

The underlying narrative form of Two Fists One Heart is familiar stuff but it is efficiently directed by Shawn Seet an experienced television making his feature film debut and the script by Rai Fazio is solidly grounded in first-hand experience. The result is a film which, whilst the subject matter is rough captures with authenticity the working class Australian immigrant experience being set largely in Northbridge, an inner-city suburb of Perth and the epicentre of its nightlife (real night clubs Mustang’s and Clancy’s are used, along with the Embassy Ballroom and Rockingham Workers Club for some of the fight scenes).

There are three intertwining narrative threads to the film. The principal one concerns the volatile relationship between young amateur boxer Anthony Argo (Daniel Amalm) and his father Joe (Ennio Fantastichini), an old-school Sicilian immigrant who trains young boxers in his backyard gym in Balga, Perth.  His son is his star protégé and bears the burden of his father’s frustrated ambitions but Anthony bristles under his father’s monomaniacal tutelage.  His dissatisfaction is exacerbated when he meets Kate (Jessica Marais) an attractive Anglo-Australian studying psychology who holds the promise of something better in his life.  Father and son fall out and Joe transfers his surrogate ambitions to a rival boxer and ex-con (played by Fazio).

These strands dutifully run their course but the film has strong performances from Fastichini, Amalm, Fazio and Marais and to its credit the romantic aspect is not wrapped up too neatly albeit still sentimentally. The boxing sequences are well-handled and to balance the thuggery Tim Minchin gets to show off his musical talents as Kate’s brother.

 

 

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