Last Cab to Darwin

Some discoveries come at the last hours of the life.

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