DANNY DECKCHAIR
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ***


DANNY DECKCHAIR is a real sweetheart of an adult fairy tale from the Land
Down Under.  This quirky comedy is something of a NOTTING HILL meets THE
LORD OF THE RINGS since it features actors NOTTING HILL's Rhys Ifans and THE
LORD OF THE RINGS's Miranda Otto playing a pair of unlikely lovers.  It's
the type of good-spirited comedy that has the whole audience going
"ohhhhhhh" in unison when their romance briefly goes astray.



Danny Morgan (Ifans) is a restless man who, with his scruffy beard and his
long stringy hair, looks like a hermit.  He is a bored concrete truck driver
who spends most of his time stuck on Sydney's roadways, going nowhere, an
apt metaphor for his marriage to Trudy (Justine Clarke).  Trudy is an
ambitious real estate agent, whose ambitions center on her desire to have an
affair with Sandy Upman (Rhys Muldoon), a good-looking TV weatherman.



With one failed scheme after another -- like the time he tried to turn
himself into a human slingshot -- Danny tries to inject a little excitement
into his mundane existence.  One bright idea of his, however, works beyond
his wildest dreams.  Attaching balloons to his deckchair (a.k.a. lawn
chair), he finds that he can float, not just a little bit, but way up into
the heavens where a big storm is brewing.



Danny's journey out of this world into a better one turns him into a
national celebrity, which means that all of the camera crews and reporters
spend their time turning Trudy into one too.  "Where did he go," the
reporters want to know, "and why did he do it?"  This loss of her husband
and the notoriety it brings makes her one of the happiest and most sought
after women in the country.  She is the center of attention, and she loves
it.



Meanwhile up in the sky, Danny ends up descending rapidly.  He drops
straight into the yard and the life of Glenda Lake (Otto), a meter maid in
the remote, small town of Clarence.  Everyone in town knows everyone else,
and everyone knows that no one likes Glenda, the town's reigning wallflower.
But -- surprise -- under Danny's glow, she blossoms into a real beauty.
"You scrub up well," Big Jim Craig (Anthony Phelan), Clarence's best known
businessman, tells her when he sees her with makeup on and wearing a
revealing dress.



With the professor in residence -- which is what Glenda tells the locals
that Danny is -- the whole town begins to come alive.  In the movie's
funniest episode, Darren Kehole (Angus King) decides he will start posing in
the nude so that the town's female artists-to-be, of which there seem to be
an inordinately large number, can have something to paint.  He keeps them in
streams of giggles, as he attempts various poses not found in most classical
paintings.  The movie, which is on the PG-side of PG-13, keeps all of this
very chaste and awfully cute.



Will Danny have to give up the happiness that he's found in Clarence or will
his big city woes eventually engulf him again?  Trust in the power of the
happy ending.



DANNY DECKCHAIR runs a breezy 1:30.  The film is in easy to understand
Australian without the need of American subtitles.  It is rated PG-13 for
"sex-related situations" and would be acceptable for kids around 8 and up.



The film is playing in limited release now in the United States.



Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com



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