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17 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Wake in Fright - You're in Wolf Creek, 15 July 2008
8/10
Author: Philby-3 from Sydney, Australia

Yet another small Australian movie made with government money with lots of outback (or at least country) photography featuring laconic Aussie blokes (or one anyway) faced with something strange and sinister. Its origins are in fact Dutch – it is a re-make by Peter Duncan ("Passion" and "Children of the Revolution") of a 1998 Dutch film "The Polish Bride". Sheepfarmer John (William McInnes) has his solitary breakfast interrupted by the arrival of Tahmeena (Monic Hendrickx), a distraught woman who speaks no English. As he suspects she might be an illegal immigrant he takes her in and attempts to communicate with her. He also happens to hear of the disappearance of a cleaner from the pub in the nearby town. Without giving too much away, he finds some longstanding local acquaintances of his have been up to no good, and this leads up to a suspenseful climax.

One common complaint about Australian films is the weakness of the scriptwriting. The writers here have given us some very spare dialogue. Tahmeena speaks only her own language and John doesn't speak much anyway. But both main characters have interesting back stories which are revealed gradually through the film. I'm not sure about the ending – there are one or two loose ends flapping about, but it's reasonably upbeat.

William McInnes is just superb as farmer John, a man just going through the motions of existence before the exotic Tahmeena arrives at his place, and then jolted into caring for someone again. As an actor he has a good range – compare this performance with the rugged urban type he played in "Look Both Ways" a couple of years ago. Monic Hendrickx, playing 10 years later the same role as she did in "The Polish Bride", is completely convincing as the desperate refugee. David Field as the local cop also gives a good performance and I also must mention Elvis the dog, one of the more personable canines seen on screen lately.

This struck me as a reasonably commercial film, like "Wolf Creek" and I'm not sure why one of the TV networks wouldn't have made something like this. There's a story, suspense, good acting, and plenty of gum trees. As an art house movie release, it's not going to get a big audience.

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19 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Well done, 4 March 2008
8/10
Author: nanapeaches from Romania

Interesting concept. It was quite well acted, it had captivating cinematography at times, and I found it entertaining, humorous, and humane. Overall a good, solid movie without the usual boring script. I was surprised, as I usually find independent movies a total hit or miss experience. This one, shockingly, had a clear ending with only a minimal cheesy factor :) I vacillated between feeling compassion for the characters and respect for the director/script writer. I would whole heartedly recommend the watching of this movie and look forward to see how other individuals react. I would be interested in knowing if there was an alternate ending to the movie.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Not Your Everyday Hollywood Remake, 27 July 2008
8/10
Author: Seamus2829 from United States

Normally, I tend to avoid re-made films like the plague. I had no prior knowledge that 'Unfinished Sky' was a Australian re-make of a 1998 Dutch film entitled 'The Polish Bride',about two damaged souls being thrown together by chance. In this case, it's about a sheep farmer who finds a wounded Afghan woman on his property,who has escaped from a life most nasty (she was brought into the country as an illegal alien to work in the sex industry). Little by little, the lives of the two begin to come together,despite the fact that neither speak the others language. Despite this, they overcome the usual obstacles. The film does manage to gloss over some details about the woman (actually played by the same actress that played in the Dutch original),but does wear it's heart on it's sleeve,rather nicely. As this film has no U.S. distributor, it may be a bit of a find. Worth taking a look at (especially if you've seen the original version).

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
An above average film, with some issues, 11 July 2008
6/10
Author: tomas_ernst from Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I really wanted to like this film because of the fascinating story line of an Afghani woman and a rural Australian farmer. These really are two worlds that should not collide, and so the premise based on a collision of these two characters should make for a compelling narrative. However, when I walked out of the cinema I left with the feeling the film was satisfactory but nonetheless failed to deliver.

The chemistry between the two main actors was evident, and the powerful feature of the film was the beautiful silences between them. For aspiring screenwriters Peter Duncan and Mr. der Hulst prove that films light on dialogue make for fascinating stories, because we can evaluate the characters based on what they do, not on what they say. This is not an easy accomplishment in screen writing, as the tendency is to write cheesy dialogue that suffocates story. Moreover, most actors seem to choose scripts heavy on dialogue with the hope it contains that one memorable line. Unfinished Sky is truly a story told in pictures.

The veracity of the story is believable, and no Australian should doubt the possibility that an almost an entire rural community could be complicit in the knowledge that certain "businesses" employ and exploit illegal immigrants, particularly females. Now, I think the most unbelievable aspect of the story was the community police officer and his relationship with the town and the main character John. He suddenly just seemed to show-up throughout the film, and I couldn't help feel the Director was throwing him into the scenes for the purpose of maximizing dramatic value. It didn't work, and Roy Billing is forced into overacting.

Flashbacks – another screen writing vehicle that either works or doesn't. I think there were other ways they could have structured the narrative, perhaps in a more chronological order, as opposed to inserting flashbacks throughout. Sadly, Unfinished Sky is a film that incorporates flashbacks to the detriment of my viewing experience. It slowed the action down; there were other ways to reveal insights about these characters.

My last critique was the blue sky as the chosen motif for the film. Personally, if the title of the film is Unfinished Sky then the film's key motif should NOT be the same! Surely! The Director frequently portrayed John working on an "unfinished puzzle" depicting a blue sky. Then John and T. working together on the puzzle. I felt at times choking on metaphors; not an ideal cinematic experience. More subtlety is required.

Finally, one reviewer made this comment about the film "When we are steamed up about injustice, we cannot access the very fine-tuned emotions associated with love." I whole-heartedly disagree with that. This line says a lot more about the individual viewer than it does the quality of the film.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A brilliant, moving and oh, so Australian film., 14 July 2008
10/10
Author: Tim Johnson from Fremantle, Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I do not think another country in the world could make Unfinished Sky; it is a film rooted in this country and to try and replant it somewhere else would simply kill it.

Diane and I watched it in Perth at Paradiso this morning and we both were moved by it and thought the film provoking and demanding of our attention. It is a worthy successor to, what now has become an Australian genre, such films (in no particular order) Japanese Story, Oyster Farmer, Peaches, Paperback Hero: in short, films that examine Australian life with no apologies to anyone. Offhand I cannot recall other countries whose cinema so carefully dissects its own people as our filmmakers do regularly. This examination does not focus on the Big Pictures of human existence; rather they examine the minutia of people's existence; the events that do not involve car chases or fights or explosions but whose existence presupposes an individual examination of small events that cause huge reverberations on the individuals involved. And isn't this what happens day in and day out to all of us? People might think my comments daft after viewing a film involving illegal aliens, shootings, road accidents (unseen) accidental death(again unseen)as being a little over-the-top for your average suburban dweller. However, only a casual reading of the newspaper will give more examples of these all too human events than this movie contains. I, nor my wife, saw anything in this story that was too much for reality. Rather we saw superb actors bringing a sad story to the screen that, as I said, provided ample script to chew on after the credits rolled.

Hendrickx and McInnes acted so well; the movie is worth seeing just to watch their portrayal of two people thrown together and living now with each other's difficult pasts. The symbolism of the empty sky, as alluded to in the movie's title, plays a particular role in the story and, as I am sure the viewers will appreciate, becomes increasingly important as glue by which the entire film holds together.

I am sure any viewer will be captivated by this film and will have been grateful to have seen it.

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11 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Flawed socio-romantic drama, 18 April 2008
4/10
Author: Michael Open from Belfast, NI

This film demonstrates how fragile film aesthetics are. Quite possibly as a novel, which takes time to read and allows us to accommodate shifts in our emotions, it could be fine. But here we have, essentially two conflicting stories that are jammed onto one another with destructive results.

One story is a tough, indeed brutal, issues movie dealing with justice, male dominance and humanist sentiments, the other is a touching romance about two vulnerable people trying to heal each other from their emotional scars. Neither of these is very original and the one, in my view, emotionally precludes the other. When we are steamed up about injustice, we cannot access the very fine-tuned emotions associated with love.

One of the greatest things about the film medium is its ability to twist time and integrate the past into the present. But here, that is the film's undoing. If the story had been told chronologically, we would at least have been able to get the nastiness out of the way and empathise with the romance, but the threat and extremely crude depictions of the 'horrors of the brothel' keep bursting back in, destroying any subtle emotions that have been generated.

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Whoah! This one really packs a punch, 1 November 2009
8/10
Author: John McGhie from Australia

I'm a sucker for romance. No, I didn't give Legally Blonde a ten, but I'm pretty tragic: I watched Notting Hill three times.

That's what I thought I was getting this time. I was wrong.

I recorded this, and it was a few months until I got around to watching it.

It helps if you don't know that it's a remake: but by now, you do. Or of what... If you've seen the other movie, you can watch this one too: trust me, you have NOT seen it before! When I watched it, I didn't know it was a re-make; I didn't even know it was Australian. I take the point of the poster who said this is two stories compressed into the one movie: it is. He believes that's over-doing it. I respectfully disagree: in Australia, we often find the "one idea" Hollywood treatment of a story quite unsatisfying.

This movie had me in from the opening scenes. It's one of the few movies I wouldn't pause to take a phone call. That's my highest accolade, and this one earns it.

Notice the high ratings the Australian posters are giving it? That's not entirely because we like our own films. It's also because this has an authenticity that is utterly compelling, if you happen to speak Australian. If you do speak Australian, you will realise that the power of this story is in what is NOT said. Which tends to be the way rural Australians communicate! Outback Australia really is like this: particularly the north of the country.

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Give it a try - great film., 29 June 2009
8/10
Author: dlldeano from Australia

i thoroughly enjoyed this film. history would suggest Aussie made films aren't generally of the highest caliber - mad max(mad max 1 that is) aside. But as an Aussie myself i will allow myself to be critical of Aussie movies. so to watch this film was a delight. this film had a great back drop - rural Australia - and didn't under or overplay that aspect of the film. Was a lot of money spent making this movie - no - but that would be true to the film - a gritty and very good Australian film. The film also contains a little something for most, with an element of romance and suspense thrown into this drama. The plot tag also suggests she flees a brothel which sounds very cliché but isn't accurate in relation to where she is fleeing from at the beginning of the film. Give it a try - great film.

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