StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

John McGhie I'm a sucker for romance. No, I didn't give Legally Blonde a ten, but I'm pretty tragic: I watched Notting Hill three times.That's what I thought I was getting this time. I was wrong.I recorded this, and it was a few months until I got around to watching it.It helps if you don't know that it's a remake: but by now, you do. Or of what... If you've seen the other movie, you can watch this one too: trust me, you have NOT seen it before! When I watched it, I didn't know it was a re-make; I didn't even know it was Australian. I take the point of the poster who said this is two stories compressed into the one movie: it is. He believes that's over-doing it. I respectfully disagree: in Australia, we often find the "one idea" Hollywood treatment of a story quite unsatisfying.This movie had me in from the opening scenes. It's one of the few movies I wouldn't pause to take a phone call. That's my highest accolade, and this one earns it.Notice the high ratings the Australian posters are giving it? That's not entirely because we like our own films. It's also because this has an authenticity that is utterly compelling, if you happen to speak Australian. If you do speak Australian, you will realise that the power of this story is in what is NOT said. Which tends to be the way rural Australians communicate! Outback Australia really is like this: particularly the north of the country.

Tim Johnson I do not think another country in the world could make Unfinished Sky; it is a film rooted in this country and to try and replant it somewhere else would simply kill it.Diane and I watched it in Perth at Paradiso this morning and we both were moved by it and thought the film provoking and demanding of our attention. It is a worthy successor to, what now has become an Australian genre, such films (in no particular order) Japanese Story, Oyster Farmer, Peaches, Paperback Hero: in short, films that examine Australian life with no apologies to anyone. Offhand I cannot recall other countries whose cinema so carefully dissects its own people as our filmmakers do regularly. This examination does not focus on the Big Pictures of human existence; rather they examine the minutia of people's existence; the events that do not involve car chases or fights or explosions but whose existence presupposes an individual examination of small events that cause huge reverberations on the individuals involved. And isn't this what happens day in and day out to all of us? People might think my comments daft after viewing a film involving illegal aliens, shootings, road accidents (unseen) accidental death(again unseen)as being a little over-the-top for your average suburban dweller. However, only a casual reading of the newspaper will give more examples of these all too human events than this movie contains. I, nor my wife, saw anything in this story that was too much for reality. Rather we saw superb actors bringing a sad story to the screen that, as I said, provided ample script to chew on after the credits rolled.Hendrickx and McInnes acted so well; the movie is worth seeing just to watch their portrayal of two people thrown together and living now with each other's difficult pasts. The symbolism of the empty sky, as alluded to in the movie's title, plays a particular role in the story and, as I am sure the viewers will appreciate, becomes increasingly important as glue by which the entire film holds together.I am sure any viewer will be captivated by this film and will have been grateful to have seen it.

Balthazar-5 This film demonstrates how fragile film aesthetics are. Quite possibly as a novel, which takes time to read and allows us to accommodate shifts in our emotions, it could be fine. But here we have, essentially two conflicting stories that are jammed onto one another with destructive results.One story is a tough, indeed brutal, issues movie dealing with justice, male dominance and humanist sentiments, the other is a touching romance about two vulnerable people trying to heal each other from their emotional scars. Neither of these is very original and the one, in my view, emotionally precludes the other. When we are steamed up about injustice, we cannot access the very fine-tuned emotions associated with love.One of the greatest things about the film medium is its ability to twist time and integrate the past into the present. But here, that is the film's undoing. If the story had been told chronologically, we would at least have been able to get the nastiness out of the way and empathise with the romance, but the threat and extremely crude depictions of the 'horrors of the brothel' keep bursting back in, destroying any subtle emotions that have been generated.

nanapeaches Interesting concept. It was quite well acted, it had captivating cinematography at times, and I found it entertaining, humorous, and humane. Overall a good, solid movie without the usual boring script. I was surprised, as I usually find independent movies a total hit or miss experience. This one, shockingly, had a clear ending with only a minimal cheesy factor :) I vacillated between feeling compassion for the characters and respect for the director/script writer. I would whole heartedly recommend the watching of this movie and look forward to see how other individuals react. I would be interested in knowing if there was an alternate ending to the movie.