Gross Misconduct

Given the lengths gone to make this erotic thriller-cum-courtroom drama look American it is surprising that it was made in Australia with assistance from the Australian Film Commission.

Perhaps Stateside the idea of a hipster philosophy lecturer (on the subject of love, no less) who drives a classic convertible and plays cool jazz funk in a nightclub attended by his doting female students would seem less risible. Certainly the casting of US television actor Jimmy Smits in the lead would not raise any eyebrows. Seen from Downunder, however, it is a far less tenable proposition and the laboured opening set-up on the banks of the Yarra does nothing to mollify the situation.

Hybridizing Melbourne and Sydney locations and keeping the interior settings anonymously upmarket, Miller's film, based on a play, "Assault With A Deadly Weapon" by Lance Peters who co-scripted with Gerard Peters, follows the unfortunate liaison between said professor and a student who has a crush on him (a squeaky-voiced Naomi Watts, looking remarkably like Nicole Kidman) with no subtlety (fires burn in virtually every umbrageoulsy-lit setting, even the lecture theatres and the bathroom) but a good deal of gloss. The courtroom sequences do finally engage one's attention but for the most part the film is dutifully formulaic despite in the latter part, thanks to Adrian Wright's sleazy, cravat-wearing opera-loving degenerate Daddy, bordering on the trash/exploitational.

FYI: The director, George Trumball Miller, is not to be confused with George "Mad Max" Miller.

 

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