TOP END WEDDING
****
Director: Wayne Blair
Screenwriter: Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler
Principal cast:
Miranda Tapsell
Gwilym Lee
Shari Sebbens
Ursula Lovich
Huw Higginson
Tracy Mann
Kerry Fox
Country: Australia
Classification: M
Runtime: 102 mins.
Australian release date: 2 May 2019
Previewed at: Randwick Ritz Cinema, Sydney, on 9 April 2019.
Described by Wayne Blair as a “black fella/white fella rom-com”, Top End Wedding reunites the director with some of the cast and crew of his much-loved 2012 film The Sapphires, in particular Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens, and it’s pretty obvious that the team works well together. There’s a palpable sense of joy and happiness radiating from the screen, although much of that could simply be due to the charm and charisma of Tapsell, who’s in frame much of the time and who also co-wrote the film. She and her fellow scripter, Joshua Tyler, are big fans of the late, great author and screenwriter Nora Ephron, famed for romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle, You’ve Got Mail and many more, and her influence shows. The story contains many of the standard tropes of the genre but there’s a lot of wit, snap and crackle in the dialogue.
On the same day in Adelaide, up-and-coming lawyer Lauren (Tapsell) gets a promotion from her hard-arsed boss Hampton (Kerry Fox), her boyfriend Ned (English actor Gwilym Lee, fresh from playing Brian May in Bohemian Rhapsody) quits his job and then proposes to her. Given time off from work so that she can return to her hometown of Darwin for the marriage, a city she hasn’t been back to for five years, Lauren has just 10 days to organise the happy event, but when she and Ned arrive in the Top End they find that her mum Daffy (Ursula Lovich) has run off and left her dad Trevor (Huw Higginson), without a clue as to where she’s gone. Refusing to get married without her mother in attendance, Lauren and Ned hit the road in pursuit of Daffy, despite the lack of information at hand, and the journey eventually leads the couple to Lauren’s mum’s ‘country’, the Tiwi Islands, where the reason for her mysterious disappearance is revealed. This road trip enables Lauren, Ned and us to travel through some of the most beautiful, breathtaking terrain in the Northern Territory. Little wonder that Tourism NT was an investor in the film, it should boost visitor numbers significantly. Locations include Kakadu National Park, Katherine, Nitmiluk National Park and the Nitmiluk Gorge, and the aforementioned Tiwi Islands, and Eric Murray Lui’s camera records them to perfection. They add a unique element to Blair’s film.
The performances of the large cast are all very good, from the leads to the many minor roles. Actors like Tracy Mann as Ned’s snooty mother, and Shari Sebbens, Elaine Crombie and Dalara Williams as Lauren’s bridesmaids, add dimension to the story, despite their small parts being mainly comic. Even Wayne Blair pops up, á la Alfred Hitchcock, in an uncredited cameo as a tow-truck driver. Gwilym Lee hits all the right notes as the ‘fish out of water’ bridegroom who doesn’t really understand the depth of Lauren’s feelings towards her mother but is prepared to do anything to make her happy; but it’s Tapsell who carries the film. She is, as her co-star described her, “a little pocket rocket.” He continued, saying, “She is so talented and she's wearing so many hats on this job - writer and actor and the weight of responsibility. I think she feels this responsibility to represent her people and indigenous people faithfully.” She also has a terrific sense of comedic timing, both in her writing and her acting.
Mention must also be made of the inhabitants of the Tiwi Islands, who embraced the production team and welcomed them to their island, and many of whom appear in the film. Of particular note are Bernard Tipiloura and Lynette Marie Johnson, who play Lauren’s grandparents Macarius and Eugenia. There is also a wonderful performance by the Tiwi Women’s Choir Ngarukuruwala singing a beautiful love song in language. On the subject of music, award-winning composer Antony Partos has written a fitting score to match the movie’s light-hearted tone. He says, “We wanted to create a palette that had a cheekiness and intimacy, so there was never any talk of having a big orchestral score, or having an electronic score. This was about creating an acoustic, intimate feeling.” The film also uses quite a number of pop songs and there’s an amusing running gag about Chicago’s 1976 hit If You Leave Me Now.
Shot in 30 days, Top End Wedding is a slick production with a story that will, for the most part, wash over you while providing plenty of laughs. It steps up a level, though, in the back third when Lauren arrives in the Tiwis. In this section of the movie, serious questions are raised about the importance of Indigenous culture and the price that is paid when people are cut off from their roots; it examines issues surrounding identity, family, connection to ‘country’ and, of course, love - not just for one another but love of place, belonging and community. It is these things that make Top End Wedding more than merely a “black fella/white fella rom-com”.
Screenwriter: Miranda Tapsell and Joshua Tyler
Principal cast:
Miranda Tapsell
Gwilym Lee
Shari Sebbens
Ursula Lovich
Huw Higginson
Tracy Mann
Kerry Fox
Country: Australia
Classification: M
Runtime: 102 mins.
Australian release date: 2 May 2019
Previewed at: Randwick Ritz Cinema, Sydney, on 9 April 2019.
Described by Wayne Blair as a “black fella/white fella rom-com”, Top End Wedding reunites the director with some of the cast and crew of his much-loved 2012 film The Sapphires, in particular Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens, and it’s pretty obvious that the team works well together. There’s a palpable sense of joy and happiness radiating from the screen, although much of that could simply be due to the charm and charisma of Tapsell, who’s in frame much of the time and who also co-wrote the film. She and her fellow scripter, Joshua Tyler, are big fans of the late, great author and screenwriter Nora Ephron, famed for romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle, You’ve Got Mail and many more, and her influence shows. The story contains many of the standard tropes of the genre but there’s a lot of wit, snap and crackle in the dialogue.
On the same day in Adelaide, up-and-coming lawyer Lauren (Tapsell) gets a promotion from her hard-arsed boss Hampton (Kerry Fox), her boyfriend Ned (English actor Gwilym Lee, fresh from playing Brian May in Bohemian Rhapsody) quits his job and then proposes to her. Given time off from work so that she can return to her hometown of Darwin for the marriage, a city she hasn’t been back to for five years, Lauren has just 10 days to organise the happy event, but when she and Ned arrive in the Top End they find that her mum Daffy (Ursula Lovich) has run off and left her dad Trevor (Huw Higginson), without a clue as to where she’s gone. Refusing to get married without her mother in attendance, Lauren and Ned hit the road in pursuit of Daffy, despite the lack of information at hand, and the journey eventually leads the couple to Lauren’s mum’s ‘country’, the Tiwi Islands, where the reason for her mysterious disappearance is revealed. This road trip enables Lauren, Ned and us to travel through some of the most beautiful, breathtaking terrain in the Northern Territory. Little wonder that Tourism NT was an investor in the film, it should boost visitor numbers significantly. Locations include Kakadu National Park, Katherine, Nitmiluk National Park and the Nitmiluk Gorge, and the aforementioned Tiwi Islands, and Eric Murray Lui’s camera records them to perfection. They add a unique element to Blair’s film.
The performances of the large cast are all very good, from the leads to the many minor roles. Actors like Tracy Mann as Ned’s snooty mother, and Shari Sebbens, Elaine Crombie and Dalara Williams as Lauren’s bridesmaids, add dimension to the story, despite their small parts being mainly comic. Even Wayne Blair pops up, á la Alfred Hitchcock, in an uncredited cameo as a tow-truck driver. Gwilym Lee hits all the right notes as the ‘fish out of water’ bridegroom who doesn’t really understand the depth of Lauren’s feelings towards her mother but is prepared to do anything to make her happy; but it’s Tapsell who carries the film. She is, as her co-star described her, “a little pocket rocket.” He continued, saying, “She is so talented and she's wearing so many hats on this job - writer and actor and the weight of responsibility. I think she feels this responsibility to represent her people and indigenous people faithfully.” She also has a terrific sense of comedic timing, both in her writing and her acting.
Mention must also be made of the inhabitants of the Tiwi Islands, who embraced the production team and welcomed them to their island, and many of whom appear in the film. Of particular note are Bernard Tipiloura and Lynette Marie Johnson, who play Lauren’s grandparents Macarius and Eugenia. There is also a wonderful performance by the Tiwi Women’s Choir Ngarukuruwala singing a beautiful love song in language. On the subject of music, award-winning composer Antony Partos has written a fitting score to match the movie’s light-hearted tone. He says, “We wanted to create a palette that had a cheekiness and intimacy, so there was never any talk of having a big orchestral score, or having an electronic score. This was about creating an acoustic, intimate feeling.” The film also uses quite a number of pop songs and there’s an amusing running gag about Chicago’s 1976 hit If You Leave Me Now.
Shot in 30 days, Top End Wedding is a slick production with a story that will, for the most part, wash over you while providing plenty of laughs. It steps up a level, though, in the back third when Lauren arrives in the Tiwis. In this section of the movie, serious questions are raised about the importance of Indigenous culture and the price that is paid when people are cut off from their roots; it examines issues surrounding identity, family, connection to ‘country’ and, of course, love - not just for one another but love of place, belonging and community. It is these things that make Top End Wedding more than merely a “black fella/white fella rom-com”.