This feature debut from Australian TV director Ian Watson tackles the sensitive subject of self acceptance with great sincerity and full of well-meaning intentions which sadly falls flat on the screen.
It’s the story of Noah (Reece Noi) a young Brit/Australian gay musician who is feeling so unsettled that he quits the Tour of the UK he is playing in, and on a whim flies back to visit his mother in Sydney. She is hardly the happiest of souls still very bitter about her husband waking our on her and leaving her alone , and the fact that her house is close to a Deaf Social Club whose nightly discos has the music turned up way too loud.
Its at the Club that Noah strolls into one night that he bumps into Finn (Yiana Pandelis) a deaf trans man who is having issues dealing with his transitioning, and who wants to keep his hair really long just like his recently departed mother. Finn is not so much angry about his loss of hearing but more so with his very supportive father and the other Club workers who all have their own different agendas.
The connection between Noah and Finn is immediate but as there is no screen chemistry between the two actors at all, their struggle to form any sort of relationship at all lacks any conviction. Both of these very different men are seemingly at crossroads in their lives and seem to think that being together will help them find their own selves . They hardly love themselves so it is highly unlikely they are capable of loving each other. It is a stretch to both the imagination and our patience too.
The highly emotional scenes is this melodrama give the movie an unwelcome soap-opera feel which is sad because somewhere under all this, there is probably a good story to be told .
Labels: 2019, Australian, drama, trans
