Writer Alert! 'Emerald Falls' with Honorary Mention to 'Waitress'
March 24th 2008 00:15
First, a clarification - my search for writers in writing is not a criticism. It's really just an observation which has morphed into a personal obsession. I get a chuckle from seeing characters who are writers in books and film, it has become my own little 'in joke'. And as far as I'm concerned the more the merrier - I'll undoubtedly create a character myself one day who is a writer. Come to think of it...I wrote a short screenplay a few years back and one of the characters was a tortured songwriter who kidnapped a singer in order to have her songs heard. (OK - I was in a sort of dark, student-type head-space at the time)
But to today's observation.
Last night I watched the new Aussie TV murder mystery Emerald Falls. If you haven't watched it yet and intend to, now is probably when you should stop reading!
Anyway, this fun show was a veritable reunion of Play School stars with Georgie Parker, Andrew McFarlane and Rhys Muldoon rounding out the cast. I'm not usually a fan of Georgie Parker but I liked her work here.
The story is set in the Blue Mountains and sees Joni (Parker) as an ex-teacher having a 'mountain-change' after her divorce. With her teenage son she moves into a B&B and gathers a motley crew of employees with the usual small town quirks. The town minister is the fabulous Catherine McClements who gives us the great line, "The body might be a temple but it needs the occasional worshipper."
Andrew McFarlane - one of my Play School faves - is the gorgeous town doctor with a secret who eventually meets his doom at the bottom of his staircase.
Joni's son, Zac (charismatic newcomer Tom Green) is an amateur CSI-type of kid who breaks in to the murder scene to gather all of the evidence that the small town cops miss. With his trusty digital camera Zac photographs the scene and - lo and behold - on the wall of the doctor's office is a framed University degree in Creative Writing!!! Writer Alert!!!Turns out the Doc isn't a Doc at all but just another writer in this big writing soup - and not a very good one at that!
However, his pitifully earnest manuscript contains the clues which help young Zac to solve the mystery ( of course)- and I won't be so cruel as to tell you whodunnit.
Emerald Falls was tightly scripted and a lot of fun. Supporting Aussie drama is one way to ensure continuing employment for local writers and actors (as well as all the other guys involved in production). Emerald Falls may be made into a series if I can believe my TV guide - it will definitely be on my list.
And just while we're on the subject - Next Sunday night the ABC premieres another local drama East Of Everything with the fab Susie Porter and Richard Roxburgh. I can't wait to see it. And it looks like an addition to The List because, as it says in my trusty TV Guide, "The six-part series is based around Art Watkins (Roxburgh) a travel writer who returns home to be by his dying mother's side" Writer Alert!!
And so to my other viewing this Easter weekend, which was Adrienne Shelley's cute film Waitress. Now I'm an absolute sucker for quirky small-town tales. I was a total Twin Peaks tragic in the early '90's and The Gilmore Girls has been a more recent guilty pleasure. So this sweet story of a waitress, Jenna (Kerri Russell), with a pie- baking gift was right up my alley.
I found myself completely engaged with Jenna's tragi-comic life which came complete with the insidious presence of her husband Earl-y (Jeremy Sisto) - who struck me as a sort of distant cousin of Dennis Hopper's, Frank, in David Lynch's Blue Velvet - not really the kinda guy you want to share a bed with. I remember thinking, as Jenna embarked on her gorgeous affair with the awkward but sexy Dr Pommater(Nathan Fillion) , "Don't do it, don't do it" - not because Dr Pommater is not irresistable, but because Earl is so scary.
Anyway, so I'm watching this lovely film thinking, "There won't be any writers here in this small town. They're all too busy waiting tables and sleeping with inappropriate men!" And then Jenna starts writing fabulously truthful letters to her unborn baby. But, as any regular reader of my blog knows, this doesn't count. These letters are epistolary in nature and not really a writer-type character (lovely though they were).
However, then we are introduced to Ogie (Eddie Jemison). Now this strange character more-or-less stalks Adrienne Shelley's 'pasty-skinned' Dawn until she falls in love with him (sort of worrying if you really think about it). What seems to be the deal-closer is Ogie's predilection for "spontaneous poetry" - usually with the skittery Dawn as his subjects. Such pearls as,
"If I had a penny for everything I love about you,
I would have many pennies."
Now Ogie never puts pen to paper but in his "spontaneous poetry' there beats the heart and soul of a writer.
So that is why Waitress gets an honorable mention this Easter.
But to today's observation.
Last night I watched the new Aussie TV murder mystery Emerald Falls. If you haven't watched it yet and intend to, now is probably when you should stop reading!
Anyway, this fun show was a veritable reunion of Play School stars with Georgie Parker, Andrew McFarlane and Rhys Muldoon rounding out the cast. I'm not usually a fan of Georgie Parker but I liked her work here.
The story is set in the Blue Mountains and sees Joni (Parker) as an ex-teacher having a 'mountain-change' after her divorce. With her teenage son she moves into a B&B and gathers a motley crew of employees with the usual small town quirks. The town minister is the fabulous Catherine McClements who gives us the great line, "The body might be a temple but it needs the occasional worshipper."
Andrew McFarlane - one of my Play School faves - is the gorgeous town doctor with a secret who eventually meets his doom at the bottom of his staircase.
Joni's son, Zac (charismatic newcomer Tom Green) is an amateur CSI-type of kid who breaks in to the murder scene to gather all of the evidence that the small town cops miss. With his trusty digital camera Zac photographs the scene and - lo and behold - on the wall of the doctor's office is a framed University degree in Creative Writing!!! Writer Alert!!!Turns out the Doc isn't a Doc at all but just another writer in this big writing soup - and not a very good one at that!
However, his pitifully earnest manuscript contains the clues which help young Zac to solve the mystery ( of course)- and I won't be so cruel as to tell you whodunnit.
Emerald Falls was tightly scripted and a lot of fun. Supporting Aussie drama is one way to ensure continuing employment for local writers and actors (as well as all the other guys involved in production). Emerald Falls may be made into a series if I can believe my TV guide - it will definitely be on my list.
And just while we're on the subject - Next Sunday night the ABC premieres another local drama East Of Everything with the fab Susie Porter and Richard Roxburgh. I can't wait to see it. And it looks like an addition to The List because, as it says in my trusty TV Guide, "The six-part series is based around Art Watkins (Roxburgh) a travel writer who returns home to be by his dying mother's side" Writer Alert!!
And so to my other viewing this Easter weekend, which was Adrienne Shelley's cute film Waitress. Now I'm an absolute sucker for quirky small-town tales. I was a total Twin Peaks tragic in the early '90's and The Gilmore Girls has been a more recent guilty pleasure. So this sweet story of a waitress, Jenna (Kerri Russell), with a pie- baking gift was right up my alley.
I found myself completely engaged with Jenna's tragi-comic life which came complete with the insidious presence of her husband Earl-y (Jeremy Sisto) - who struck me as a sort of distant cousin of Dennis Hopper's, Frank, in David Lynch's Blue Velvet - not really the kinda guy you want to share a bed with. I remember thinking, as Jenna embarked on her gorgeous affair with the awkward but sexy Dr Pommater(Nathan Fillion) , "Don't do it, don't do it" - not because Dr Pommater is not irresistable, but because Earl is so scary.
Anyway, so I'm watching this lovely film thinking, "There won't be any writers here in this small town. They're all too busy waiting tables and sleeping with inappropriate men!" And then Jenna starts writing fabulously truthful letters to her unborn baby. But, as any regular reader of my blog knows, this doesn't count. These letters are epistolary in nature and not really a writer-type character (lovely though they were).
However, then we are introduced to Ogie (Eddie Jemison). Now this strange character more-or-less stalks Adrienne Shelley's 'pasty-skinned' Dawn until she falls in love with him (sort of worrying if you really think about it). What seems to be the deal-closer is Ogie's predilection for "spontaneous poetry" - usually with the skittery Dawn as his subjects. Such pearls as,
"If I had a penny for everything I love about you,
I would have many pennies."
Now Ogie never puts pen to paper but in his "spontaneous poetry' there beats the heart and soul of a writer.
So that is why Waitress gets an honorable mention this Easter.
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Comment by Joanne Fedler
Jo
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
I loved the film but the triumph of Ogie the Stalker was definitely creepy! How cute (although inappropriate in a variety of ways) was Dr Pommater?
Jayne
Comment by Joanne Fedler
Jo
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
On a more poignant note, someone told me that the toddler with Kerri Russell at the end -what I call the "Gorgeous Yellow Dresses" scene - is Adrienne Shelley's real daughter.