Risk (2001)

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

What a dreary, plodding film this is!Sure, it's dressed up in a slick package - read as 'pretty pictures'- but it's a bit like watching characters smoke on screen (yes, they look cool, but you know they smell bad). Tom Long is proving himself as the master of monotone morons. Is this all he can play? When you see the trailer to this film, you may be mistaken in thinking it's a fast paced thriller. It should be, but there's nothing thrilling about it. Tom Long sits there looking serious, Claudia Karvan does her hard faced, cold hearted character we've seen too many times from her and Bryan Brown drinks his beer, smokes his cigs and calls everyone a b**tard. Brian Meegan is the one standout performer and he only gets about 4 minutes screen time anyway. Alan White knows his shot composition, but at the end of the day, it's a meaningless, empty experience (just like his earlier Erskinville Kings) - I mean, is the guy a director or a cinematographer?A total lack of character and emotional involvement.Australian film is in a bad state if this is where we're at.

Risk is all about the three principals. Guy Pearce is fast becoming one of Hollywoods coming men, Bryan Brown is one of Hollywoods long standing token Australians, while Claudia Karven is not so well known beyond Australia's shores, but locally is a polished regular of Australian film.Pearce makes a wonderfully naive 'bleeding heart' whose presence triggers a long standing scheme of Bryan Brown's, fully at home in the archetypal brash Ozzie male. Claudia Karven plays the other half of the scam, bringing with it the naked ambition that any scam needs to be motivated, and ultimately unravel, as well as bringing significant sexual tension to the plot, which is just one aspect of the developing relationship between the three central characters.The plot itself is nothing new, the combination of spin and setting perhaps is.It suffers slightly from the 'recognizably Australian' syndrome which plagues some Australian films, with Sydney Harbor, and particularly it's famous bridge squeezed into shot, sometimes for no other reason than to show us, hey this is Sydney!The direction works for me, the soundtrack is not intrusive, there's a Porsche featured, which always adds to the looks of a film for me, but also the two younger stars show themselves off attractively for the cameras.But what really drives the film is the clash between Brown's ruthlessness, Karven's ambition, and Pearce's straight man role, all mixed in with a dollop of fear, greed and lust.See it, you'll enjoy.

Great film. Stylish, cynical, very well made. Strong performances by the three leads make for a most enjoyable film, even if the characters are so unlikeable because of their mean and manipulative ways. Australian film-making is getting better and better.

I just saw this movie at the Toronto Film Festival, And I have to say that this is by far the best movie that i have seen in a long time. The performances by the three key players are dead on, and the direction is flawless. It is just too bad that this movie hasn't found a distributer for North America.