Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Roger Burke With more than just a nod to Paul Anderson's Magnolia (1999) and Tom Tykwer's Run, Lola, Run (1998), long-time animation writer/director, Sarah Watt, has produced an engaging montage of mini-stories all interwoven over a hot, lazy weekend in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and all loosely connected as a result of an accident – or was it? – when a young man dies under a freight train.So, the story is, on the surface, about that death. Thematically, however, it's about reaching understanding with another person by looking at a problem/situation from the other's perspective: hence, looking both ways – and perhaps metaphorically exemplified by Watt's occasional filming of flocks of pigeons, wheeling to and for, across the sky. Fortunately, Watt kept the cameras on the characters most of the time.With an ensemble cast (as in Anderson's Magnolia, or any of Robert Altman's superb productions), it's sometimes hard to distinguish main characters. Not so here: Meryl Lee (Justine Clarke) and Nick (William McInness) are in the frame most of the time, she being a commercial artist creating birthday/anniversary/wedding cards and such like (and is grieving about the recent loss of her father), he being a photo-journalist for the daily rag. They both live close to each other, but don't know that until the death occurs. She sees the death (or does she?); later, he photographs the accident scene with his mate, Andy (Anthony Hayes), the journalist who drags him along to get the photos necessary for the story. It's near where Nick lives, anyway...But Nick, y'see, didn't want to be there, wasn't happy to see death today because he'd just been told that morning, by his doctor, that he had terminal testicular cancer. However, while at the scene, Meryl's and Nick's eyes meet briefly, and, with the job done, both find that they're wandering off in the same direction, and thus strike up a conversation.Andy, in turn, is dealing with death – and an on-again/off-again romance – in a different way: he's on a crusade to prove that many male 'accidents' are actually suicides (for whatever reason) by writing a series of pieces for the paper and raising public awareness. His ex-wife, Cathy (Lucia Mastrantone), is incensed by his continual emphasis of the male perspective when she reads his latest offering about the death of that young man, and Andy's current girl-friend, Anna (Lisa Flanagan) is like-wise affected by his real displeasure at being told that she is pregnant. So, Andy's having a bad day, also.But, not as bad as Nick who, after staying the night at Meryl's digs and then later taking her to his mother's place for lunch, can't find the courage to tell either of them about his condition – mainly because he's falling in love (although he doesn't know that yet) with Meryl, while his mother lost her husband (Nick's father) to some form of cancer only twelve months previously. Later, however, Nick does spill the beans to Meryl – in front of an in-progress cricket game – and lets her think he's telling her to buzz off. Incensed, for multiple reasons, Meryl runs off, agonizing and agonized.At this point, let me leave you to find out how Nick/Meryl and Andy/Anna come to terms with the need to look both ways, and while they all ponder the meaning of the young fellow's death.There are other characters who contribute enormously to this little gem, beginning with the train driver and his family. Without one word of dialog between the driver, his wife, and their son, Watt really shows her skill as a director and with the camera to 'tell' a complete story, culminating with the driver delivering an apology and one of Meryl's bereavement cards – which, as the viewer, you've already seen in an earlier scene – to the girl-friend/partner/wife (it's uncertain which it is) of the accident victim.Add to that, the talents of the children who appear, all of whom perform flawlessly (but kids like to play-act naturally, do they not?).The four main actors are simply excellent. Justine Clarke was, of course, only a teenager when I first saw her in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985); today, she bears a striking resemblance to the serene beauty of Juliette Binoche. William McInnes (real-life husband to director Sarah Watt) is outstanding in his role, by far the best I've seen from him (winning the Australian Best Actor Award for this role). Not having seen Anthony Hayes or Lisa Flanagan before, I can say only that this first impression makes me want to see more of them.Sarah Watt will go on to bigger and better, I'm sure. Not only is her directing and writing skill evident, her technique in this film of using animation to show the thoughts of the characters is often excruciatingly funny. I first saw that technique used, to great effect, in Run, Lola, Run (a film I'd urge you to see), a thriller-fantasy that left me stunned. Watt's use of animation is not as visceral as in Lola, but is more amusing, I think. I just hope Watt doesn't overdo it in future projects.My only real criticism of the movie, oddly enough, centers on the script. On the one hand, it captures the laconic and laid-back style of colloquial Aussie perfectly; on the other hand, I'm once again amazed at the lack of four-letter expletives, particularly in regard to men. Barely one sh*t is evident, and only a few instances of 'bloody', the most harmless of all Aussie expressions. So, the realism of the setting is poorer for that lack, because, get two or more Aussie males together, and the four-letter words fly around like the birds Watt is so fond of filming. And, generally, the women aren't far behind, especially in stressful situations such as portrayed here. So, look to the financiers, I guess, for answers...

poe426 Death humbles us all. LOOK BOTH WAYS is an uncompromising look at death. (Ignore the cover art: it suggests a comedy, which this movie most definitely is not.) The news, received just a few years ago, that my wife has cancer, was the kind of news that undoes hinges. Still reeling from the blow, I was advised that my mother had lung cancer (she left this world in April). My own mortality was already a given (a collapse and a heart attack and quintuple bypass heart surgery had left me with the sneaking suspicion that I may not be long for this world). All of this was difficult to deal with (to say the very least). LOOK BOTH WAYS was, in its own way, very therapeutic. I felt much better, afterward, having seen it. If you're one of those of us who have had to come face to pale white face with the harshest of realities, I recommend you sit down and watch LOOK BOTH WAYS.

nycritic LOOK BOTH WAYS dances around death so frequently, using a barrage of images -- mainly watercolor cartoons which depict Meryl, the woman who can't seem to get over her father's passing and has a deadline to meet -- that it pounds the message to the ground: death is, in fact, everywhere, even in the mundane. Death is a part of life, but you wouldn't know that Meryl would have been informed of it by now as she continues to obssess over seeing her stop-motion doppelganger caught in the most ludicrous of situations. Then again, you wouldn't blame her: she is the witness of a train accident. Now, that's all she can think about -- being stomped to the ground by a derailed train is one of them. Being eaten by sharks is another.And she's not alone: Nick has testicular cancer and is the reporter sent to interview Meryl (who later informs Nick, in a bit of unrelated information, that she is a Cancer as if to remind him he's not quite well, ha-ha). A relationship must ensue between the two of them who are battling their demons, and it all reaches a hilarious climax when they have a sexual tryst and the attack of the rapid-fire visual information hits the screen, depicting their inner thoughts. Whether it's been copied from other films, I can't say, but it made me laugh. Seeing Meryl's watercolor twin at the ends of an AIDs-related illness, as Nick sees microscopic organisms contributing to the overpopulation of the world in the form of an unwanted pregnancy, three babies who wail incessantly, and bring forth zaniness. It's hysterical.LOOK BOTH WAYS is one of those quiet films that happen but get lost in the shuffle due to the lack of name actors and an overdose of independent film status. It barely got a chance to play in New York City early last year as it was, and maybe its own quirky material is to blame. Anyway, it's a good movie -- nothing spectacular, and a neat debut from director Sarah Watt.

busta rimes A terrible disappointment. Badly shot (flat lighting from Ray Argall), incredibly obvious set dressing and a pile of dull, ugly locations. The script seems to have been written by a women's co-op with revisions by members of the film-maker's family. Justine Clark tries hard and William McInnes is likable in his Seachange rehash as a snag with a big issue.The Big Train Smash story is off screen and that's part of the problem - there's no defining screen event to propel you into the film. Just a bunch of aimless souls wandering around in torment. The quirky cartoons from Mrs Director scream Art House with a big A. How did this get such good reviews ? It feels like a Film School graduating thesis. If this was one of the best films of 2005 , then Australian film-making is still in the desperate trouble.