Review – Blinder
Considering how obsessed Australia gets about it’s football code, there’s surprising few movies about it. The general lack of Aussie cinema makes this miniscule percentage understandable, but Blinder attempts to address this gap and does so from the even smaller niche of Australian movies made without any of the molly coddling of government funding.
Tom (Oliver Ackland) is embarrassingly omitted from the Torquay Tigers’ first premiership match under coach Chang (Jack Thompson). He devotes the next off-season training to catch up with his victorious buddies, such as Franky (Angus Sampson) and his oldest mate, Morts (Josh Helman). Meanwhile romance blossoms for Tom and Rose (Anna Hutchinson), older sister of the Tigers’ water girl, Sammy (Rose McIver) and Chang makes it awkward at home by hooking up with Tom’s mum (Zoe Carides). Come the next season’s grand final, Tom’s graduated to the starting side, but the back to back premiers’ celebrations are struck by tragedy when compromising photos reach the media. Having fled to America, ten years later, Tom must once again redeem himself upon returning to Torquay for Chang’s funeral.
Jack Thompson’s in fine form returning to his first football coach role since The Club thirty years ago. Angus Sampson shepherds the majority of the on-screen charisma in his direction, but Josh Helman pulls off maybe the toughest job onscreen as Morts grows increasingly creepier over the eleven-year movie timespan. Oliver Ackland carries the movie as the lead with all the drama, but his small stature makes for a very suspicious football ‘natural’. However, if the plot outline above wasn’t an indicator, there’s a lot more going on in this movie than just the on-field hijinks. Tom’s return to Torquay bears a resemblance with Mullet but without the anti-heroics of Ben Mendelsson.
The movie’s plagued by non-linear storytelling whereby we move constantly between three football seasons and in between. The dramatic arcs and relationships building are obscured by this process and connecting the dots may require more work than watching an ordinary football game. The details of the celebrations’ scandal are left near the end, which is an uncomfortable scene to dwell on afterwards, but thankfully there’s a few surprises left that make the back and forth worth it.
