LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

tomsview Scriptwriter Reg Cribb and director Jeremy Simms have taken the true-life story of Max Bell and put a lens on attitudes about the right to die and aspects of Australian society most of us rarely see.The film, based on Reg Cribb's 2003 stage play, commences in Broken Hill. Rex, a cabbie played by Michael Caton, has a long-standing relationship with Polly his Aboriginal neighbour. Both have somewhat abrasive personalities, but they complement each other perfectly.When Rex is diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, he learns that the Northern Territory has legalised euthanasia. He decides to leave and drive his cab to Darwin to have an assisted death rather than face a lingering one in hospital.Rex's trip to Darwin is not unlike the journey of the three protagonists in "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", its across roughly the same area and ends up in the same place, but like that earlier film, it's also a journey of discovery. Along the way, Rex becomes involved with a number of people and they change each other's lives.Although the film alters Max Bell's experience considerably, "Last Cab to Darwin" allows for another journey; the one through the divide in Australian society that started in 1788 when the original inhabitants and the European settlers were thrown together.The film seems to reinforce certain stereotypes about Indigenous Australians, especially in the role of Tilly (Mark Coles Smith), however in other ways it shows them as more sharing and less obsessed with material possessions. Tilly's character emerges as a complex one, although brash and cocky on the surface, his underlying fears and self doubts are revealed.The setting for the film is during that brief period in the mid 1990's when euthanasia was legalised in the Northern Territory, but was quickly shut down by federal law. The film doesn't necessarily advocate euthanasia though; both sides of the argument are played out.Finally, the performances are so real that some scenes are hard to watch. Michael Caton gave us a modern Australian icon with his Darryl Kerrigan in "The Castle", but he surpasses himself here.The last scene in "Last Cab to Darwin" is a lump in the throat moment. Maybe the film won't have much of a following outside Australia, but its central theme of the right to die with dignity is universal.

Reno Rangan When a movie is based on the play, setting wise it will be a tight narration. But the advantage is, movies can expand its screenplay in the natural world where stage plays has a limitation with the fake backgrounds. And obviously movies can reach any corner of the earth in the todays digital world while plays are for a limited live audience. So I think that is how this play turned into a motion picture, importantly, it was funded by the government and all the above it won a couple of Australian Academy Awards.It was a cancer themed thin comedy-drama with a little road adventure in the backdrop. A story that follows a 70-year-old cab driver Rex from Broken Hill. He has never been outside his town until he finds he has a cancer, so he takes a 3000 kilometer drive to Darwin looking for a doctor who can help him with his suffering. At the dusk hours of his life, he encounters some strangers and many stuffs for the first time. So this film is all about his final and best experience in the end of the life journey.I like sentimental films, I chose it because I haven't felt the emotions through my heart for a movie in the recent time. I expected it to fulfill my desire, but it only fell short. To me it was a decent movie in the first half, but it got better in the next half. The opening was kind of slow and dry, the cast was totally unfamiliar to me. I needed time to get used to a sudden change of accent after watching so many Hollywood flicks. Because you know we don't watch Aussie movies everyday and so the style of comedies differs with the different region."You want everything to be black and white, but it's not. It's gray."The best thing ever happened was the introduction of the characters Tilly and Julie. One is an aboriginal and the other is a British who joins Rex, the Aussie. They are the main source for the story to grow in the right direction. Because of them the narration had a subplot to focus their perspectives as well. Without them definitely it would have been a worthless flick.The end was not at its best. It hat many options, but they decided to finish it in an uncertain manner. Since it was a road movie, I also anticipated exhibition of beautiful Australian landscapes, that never came. I understand they don't want distraction from the main plot, because this was one of those films that took time for the characters to settle down. Even though it approaches the conclusion, the characters had kept deepening in its development.My upset with the movie was, it was a quite different from the usual cancer films. Precisely to say, it was very weak in the exhibition of character feelings. Certainly it won't make you weep. Just like one of the lines at the beginning that says 'everyone gets cancer', the movie was too casual like this is a regular thing. But the scenario where the story sets in and takes us with it was exceptional. I have a hesitation to recommend it, but it is a good movie if you're okay with the thing I expressed which are lacking.6½/10

CineMuseFilms A widely recognised characteristic of Australian film is our capacity to find humour in almost any subject. When people from other places try to describe our national character, they use words like larrikin, irreverent, or iconoclastic, meaning we like to laugh at ourselves and the sacred cows in our patch. So how do you laugh at dying, let alone make an Aussie comedy out of a road film that has euthanasia as its destination?Aussie icons Michael Caton and Jackie Weaver provide the larrikin mix of gravitas and humour needed to make a deadly serious issue bearable as we share the journey and the end-of-life issues facing the terminally ill cab driver Rex. He has never been outside Broken Hill and must drive 3,000 kms to Darwin to be the first person who is legally assisted to die by Weaver who plays a feminine version of Dr Death (as euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke was called). Like in all road films, he crosses iconic landscapes and encounters bad things. He also meets some beautiful characters like the Pommie backpacker Julie who becomes his nurse, a mischievous Aboriginal Peter Pan-type called Tilly, and Polly, the Aboriginal neighbour and secret lover he left behind but calls regularly. The back story of our nation's inept relationship with the traditional owners of our land frames much of Rex's journey, just as it continues to frame our evolving national identity.While it is an entertaining Aussie yarn, that's not its only purpose. Superb acting by Caton in particular brings you up close and very personal to the emotional and practical challenges of picking a time and place to die with dignity. The film can get heavy-handed in the way it loads political and moral messages into the story; for example, when Tilly yells at Rex "You think its brave to let someone else do your dying for you?" we are confronted with different ways of looking at assisted dying. Rex makes it to Darwin only to find medical and legal confusion, so things do not turn out as expected. For some, it's a distracting edit to have Rex back home in minutes when it took half the film to get there, but perhaps this reflects the truncation of time when the time has come. Be warned: this is a film that can mess with your head about the complex issue of assisted dying, but it's an Aussie gem well worth the effort.

thenekassyni I've read the negative reviews of the movie and it appears they have little sympathy for the harsh reality of the film LMAO. If I wanted to see a beautiful Australia or doing right to Aborigines I go watch nature channel or Crocodile Dundee. The unwillingness to accept the fate the movie has bestow to the viewer at front is astonishing mind boggling they deserve their own Darwin award.The movie is sad, it's depressing. It's not going to make you feel good aside from the few moments. So if you're expecting something entirely different than what it's going to give you then you're going to have to join the negative reviewers and grab yourself a Darwin award.Whether Rex lives or dies is inconsequential. It's his denial of his life and the people around him that is in question.Enjoy the movie. It's not a great movie but it's a good movie worth watching.