Review: BRAN NUE DAE

BRAN NUE DAE, directed by Rachel Perkins and written by Ms. Perkins, Mr. Chi and Reg Cribb, follows the rebellious odyssey of Willie (Rocky McKenzie), a goody-goody Aboriginal teenager who runs away from the Catholic boarding school in Perth where he is the pet student of its insufferably paternalistic priest, Father Benedictus (a silly Geoffrey Rush).

Once Willie flees, BRAN NUE DAE turns into a singing and dancing road movie whose Oz-like destination is his hometown of Broome, 3,000 miles away in western Australia. Father Benedictus, who gives chase in his Mercedes, suffers sundry comic humiliations while on the road. To reach Broome, Willie teams up with Annie (Missy Higgins) and Slippery (Tom Budge), a hippie couple in a van winding their way through the Australian outback.

Accompanying them is Uncle Tadpole (Ernie Dingo), a free-spirited old drunk whom Willie meets at a homeless camp. Tadpole might be described as the story’s tipsy, live-and-let-live wise man. Once in Broome, Willie hopes to reignite his romance with the spunky Rosie (Jessica Mauboy), whose affections were stolen by Lester (Dan Sultan), an arrogant, Elvis-like rocker who makes her a singer in his band.

The sing-songy score is a mostly forgettable potpourri of folk, reggae, country and gospel lip-synced by cast members whose uneven vocal chops underscore the home-made feel of the film. The bits of Aboriginal lore imparted along the way by Tadpole add flavoring to a sugar-coated romp that has the craft of a high school revue. Having said that, this light-hearted musical was mostly entertaining and at 80 minutes, was easy to get through.

Overall Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

BRAN NUE DAE is in theaters now. Rated PG-13 (for sexual content and drug use).

Visit the film’s official site here and on Facebook here.