The Sapphires

source: The Sapphires

I attempted to see The Sapphires back in October but an over-subscribed screening forced me into the shoddy, tedious Premium Rush. And then it pretty much disappeared without trace. After so much hype in the press and numerous freebie screenings for the public, it's a pity The Sapphires wasn't able to build on that publicity but, having finally caught it, it's not at all surprising. Pitched to cinema-goers who look for light entertainment rather than an education or emotional mauling, it was mentioned in the same breath as The Full Monty and even the sadly overlooked Kinky Boots. However, it's a very long way from the quality or magic of the former and is even in the shadow of the latter. Wayne Blair's feature directorial debut is the story of four Aboriginal girls who sing together, bicker and wind up in Vietnam, in 1968, singing for the American troops, managed and escorted by the frequently inebriated Dave (Chris O'Dowd). And that's pretty much it. There's a vague subplot about being ashamed of one's skin colour and a shy swipe at the white government of the time who took pale skinned Aboriginal children from their parents and placed them with white families to, um, whiten them, but it's barely worth bothering with here and was dealt with far better in last year's passable Oranges and Sunshine. One can't help feeling that if Blair had the balls to hit us really hard with the truth and punctuate it with the beautiful sounds of the music, he'd have a film that left its audience not knowing whether to cry with joy or horror and appreciating the power of both ends of the emotional scale. Instead he presents a mostly cheerful but ultimately bland waste of an evening. Remove the singing and The Sapphires is an awkward, stilted, obvious and insipid film that is occasionally spiced up by some god-awful overacting – just wait for the moment the girls emerge from a Vietnamese bar and screech on the street for all the evidence you need. The principals generally work well together as an ensemble and, for the most part, are enjoyable. O'Dowd, largely known from The IT Crowd, holds the film together and is engaging and funny with a hint of depth to him but he, like the others, is ill-served by and shallow screenplay and nowhere to go. Blair seems lost and relies too often on montages to propel a story he is unable to tell with pace, depth or real emotion. However, The Sapphires sing and it is worth spending the 103-minute running time in their company, though perhaps with a finger on the fast forward button. Better still, listen to the soundtrack and look at some photos of them. For more reviews from The Squiss subscribe to my blog at www.thesquiss.co.uk Like the Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/RpitOG

This movie is so real. I grew up in west NSW in a white family with a father who couldn't stand "blacks"! He owned a pub called the Globe! He raised his family in a predominantly "black" town. His best friends were Mr & Mrs White, ironically Mrs White was "black" but was never allowed to admit it. Mrs White committed suicide when she was 48. When dad died he had 6 "black" grand kids and 11 "black" great grand kids. He didn't mellow. He caused so much sadness and rejected so much love. Thanks for bringing to the world a taste of the cultural richness that constitutes Australia. I sing, cry, laugh, cry and sing from shame, pride and pleasure every time I watch The Sapphires. Another brilliant Australian film. Thank you.

"Even with Australian soul music The Sapphires fails to make an impression because it's character do seem well rounded" The Sapphires is based on real life. The story is about a girl group which includes Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), Julie (Jessica Mauboy) and Kay (Shari Sebbens) who sing in and Australia singing competition but when they fail to win. They then meet Dave (Chris O'Dowd) who decides to work with the girls as they want to go to sing for the troops in Vietnam. The film set in 1968 deals with racial problems as well as inner fighting between women like these in a girl group. When the group get to their destination they try to fight for fame through their singing. The music of this film is a great mix of soul songs of the time that the women sing and make their own. The movie when it has the chance goes for the comedy and that was a major problem because the characters were so bad only making up for it with their impressive voices. The actor's try to make the most of the material but the passion through soul is not there and when they fight I could not help but laugh even though I feel they wanted it to stay more dramatic. The film was very boring until the girls went to the war country and sure it did improve by a small amount but it still did not make me care for the film overall. Chris O'Dowd the most known person in the film is trying to continue with his breakout character in 2011's "Bridesmaids" but unlike that cop this man was hard to watch. Chris is playing the same character but worse because at times like the girls in the group I could not help but roll my eyes up to the celling. Deborah Mailman plays Gail the sister who causes the most trouble in the group. The character is very unlikeable and the fact the writing led to her and Dave starting a relationship just felt wrong because they always clashed throughout. Even when we hear about her past it still did not make me enjoy the character more. Miranda Tapsell plays the only good thing about the film because she is just an outrages funny women. She nails some of her one liners but still with every other character she just was not well thought out. The film handled music well but the surrounding story was just bad to me. The cat fighting did not work well unlike other movies like this and it was a main plot making the film even harder to watch. MOVIE GRADE: E+ (MVP: Miranda Tapsell)