Crackerjack

Synopsis: Jack Simpson (Mick Molloy) had a good deal going. The old folk at the lawn bowls club had no idea he had only joined in order to take advantage of the free parking. And frankly, Jack didn't care what they thought. That is until it looks like the club is about to close down due to lack of funds and he is required to actually play the game. He soon discovers there's a lot more to lawn bowls  than meets the eye.

Crackerjack, a worthy addition to the lineage of Australian suburban comedy that stretches back to Barry Humphries and the Barry McKenzie movies, is heart-warming, there's no denying. Mick Molloy has entered the secret life of lawn bowls and revealed a thriving community where everyone has a role to play. I don't think we can ever see too many films that show the little people socking it to the money-grubbing bully boys, and here we see it done with endearing quaintness. Asparagus sandwiches and cream filled sponge cakes take the field against pokie machines that are programmed to never pay out. Which world would you choose?

It's interesting to note that a number of the feisty bowlers were seen together in an earlier Aussie comedy, Road to Nhill. Lawn bowls featured as well. This is where the similarities end. Road to Nhill relies more on the comedy of errors principle, as messages are misunderstood, wrong roads taken, assumptions made. Also, the older actors come across more as quaint features of a by-gone era. In Crackerjack we see them in relationship with a changing society. There's a funny scene where Molloy is disgusted that Dave (Samuel Johnson) actually wants to join the bowls club because he likes the people. And as an audience, we want to get to know them as well.

John Clarke is sensational as the resident baddie and John Flaus also puts in a very nice cameo as a player banned from the game for a long gone indiscretion. The list would be long indeed if I were to mention how well each actor performed so suffice to say, they do well.

The aspect of the film that surprised me the most, was the script itself. Many people both in and out of the local film industry complain about the lack of time a script spends in development. I don't know how long Mick and his brother Richard spent on this one,whether they had a really good script editor, or just wrote it in one night over a few beers. For all its appearance of being messy, at each turn in the story, there's something new to surprise us. There are a number of threads in the overall story that are satisfyingly tied up by the closing credits. Of course from early on in the film, you know who is going to win the day, but it isn't clear just how this will be achieved, and this is one of the tests of a well-written piece.

FYI: The scenes set at the "Cityside Bowls Club" were shot at Melbourne Bowling Club, Australia's oldest lawn bowls club which is in the suburb of Windsor. Anyone interested in the category of Aussie bowling films would also be advised to check out David Caesar's first feature, Greenkeeping (1993).

 

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