Storm Boy: Film Review

Storm Boy: Film Review

Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Jai Courtney, Finn Little, Erik Thomson, Trevor Jamieson
Director: Shawn Seet

Based on a famous Australian school text by Colin Thiele, Shawn Seet's reimagining of the 1976 film Storm Boy digs deep from the well of earnest reaction to environmental concerns, while never straying too far from the central story of a boy and his friendship with a pelican.

Rush is a mournful Mike Kingley, called into a family conference over whether to allow a sell off of land for mining. Unsettled by his granddaughter's complaints over whether it's morally right, Mike decides to reflect on his past relationship with his own father and with a trio of orphaned pelicans he rescued from hunters.

Storm Boy is a curio of a film.

Clearly, in some ways, out of time from what kids and teens may come to expect from films in these superhero-filled days, Storm Boy charts a path towards a decent relationship movie, that's somewhat stymied by unsubtle touches of environmentalism.

The central story set in the past between Mike and his relatively aloof father (Courtney, doing a lot with very little) is your typical tale of man and animal bond, given a refreshing honesty and earnestness that proves hard to deny.

But the flashes back and forth prevent the narrative from fully feeling fleshed out and create a disruptive flow that's hard to shake, in among Seet's overuse of slow-mo shots and blurred images of hunters, guns and waters sullied by cans.

Rush is nicely mournful, and delivers a character who clearly rues a lot of what life has dealt to him, as he faces one last real chance of making a difference for eternity. There's a soulful edge to his performance, and while some may be too caught up in the troubles facing him in real life to focus on what's on screen, he more than delivers a melancholy turn.

In the flashbacks, the contrast with wide-eyed newcomer Little and slightly underplayed Courtney works well. And certainly the animal interactions add much heart to keep the younger end of the audience engaged.

While the film's less successful with its environmental edges, preferring to be blurred rather than outright and honest, Storm Boy is a film that feels refreshingly old school and yet bizarrely, may fail to find an audience who will be anything but inured to its charms.