Any Questions for Ben?

What happens when the cast of “Thank God you’re here” decide to make a movie?

Any Questions for Ben. That’s what.

There is nothing wrong with this film, it’s a perfectly nice little film that doesn’t deserve to have a bad word said about it however it’s true that it doesn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts. The performances are good, Josh Lawsone is good. The fine display of Australian comic talent is good. But no-one is used to their potential. The direction is good. The writing is good. But it never quite peaks to great. One of the main problems is that the film meanders, pleasantly, there’s no question its pleasant meandering but there’s no thrust to the plot.

It seems like a really, really long pilot episode to a good sit-com or the character set up to a classic comedy from the 80’s but then nothing zany happens. Ghosts don’t appear, Ben never has to pretend his Boss is still alive and his computer never gains intelligence. Mores the pity. As far as Rom-com’s go there’s no doubt that Australians can do rom-coms as good as any that you might see from America but seeing as that is a particularly well mined genre there’s nothing really new to see here.

It’s really Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, girl and boy get together despite adversity, boy loses girl and it’s his own stupid fault but in the end…well I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you.

It’s a sweet, sweet film that Melbournians will particularly feel a simpatico with. And whilst I enjoyed it, it was a little like a big music video in places.

Audio: An inconsistent audio mix that makes the music too loud and the dialogue not loud enough. Not rewarding for people with 5.1.

Video: Melbourne never looked more HD.

Special Features: Not a lot to talk about here, a commentary that’s ok and a short making of that really doesn’t tell you anything you need to know.