Another disappointment for me, from the local film industry for 2016. After an awe-inspiring 2015, I guess the next year could never live up to it, but so far there doesn't seem to have been either a runaway hit nor an impressive Australian movie to cheer for. 'Looking For Grace' is sadly looking for a purpose, as it seems to be very caught up in its conceit, but not really making any great insights or character development during its healthy 100 minute duration.I've enjoyed some of Sue Brooks' earlier work; especially 'Road to Nihill' but this one just fell flat and felt overdone and without credulity. Why Radha Mitchell's lead character was allowed to cultivate such an over the top accent; escapes me. It made her seem a caricature and the serious storyline reduced to whimsy or light comedy. Lkewise thespian for many decades,Richard Roxburgh was painfully broad and faux comedic, where a more grounded and considered performance would have worked so much better. As with 'The Daughter' (another disappointing and forced dramatic work), Odessa Young really saves this movie too. With a naturalistic style and interesting presence, the actress really gives 'Looking for Grace' its saving grace, as the protagonist to this very choppy and muddy narrative. At the other end of the age spectrum, veteran Terry Norris brings real warmth and character to the film; but again the plot inserts him but doesn't really explain how he is there and how he is able to help the main characters. Ultimately, the plot and the film really don't hang together, and combined with some woeful over- acting, it is hard to get too excited about this movie.Per capita, Australia must have more skilled cinematographers than any country in the world, and 'Looking for Grace' thankfully has a terrific eye in Katie Milwright who gives the film a terrific sense of place and scope. I only wish that the screenplay had provided everybody something more coherent and meaningful to work with.

My wife and I endured an hour of "Looking for Grace" before we both conceded that life is too short to waste on crap like this and walked out of the cinema. The acting was tedious, the pacing horrendous, the script a dogs breakfast and it was just a painful experience. The timing of the actors was shocking, it was like watching the early rehearsals of a poorly directed stage play, I think the director was on sleeping tablets at the time of the directing! Australian movies have enough trouble drawing big audiences which is wrong,our movies are up there with the best in the world, this dud however is not in that category and will certainly not attract too many "bums" on seats.

One of the classic tropes of Australian film is the random and ever-present potential for destruction that is represented cinematically by the vastness and untamed beauty of our unique landscapes. It is sometimes shown, for example, as mystical power (eg: Picnic at Hanging Rock), dystopian violence (The Rover), terror (Wolf Creek), images of deadly bushfires or road-kill scattered over lonely country roads. Looking for Grace builds on this tradition and explores random destruction in a novel way by taking a simple plot line and splitting into separate narratives that converge with deadly force.Five stories unfold in parallel as sign-posted chapters, each telling the same story but from a different viewpoint. The narrative arc turns on rebellious 16 year-old Grace who empties her father's safe and hops on a coach for a heavy metal concert a few days from home. While chance plays a part, meeting a boy, losing her virginity, and being robbed is a predictable tale for many run-aways. What is not predictable is how the four other stories overlap hers. The unfaithful father seems more concerned about the cash than his daughter and the over-controlling mother is pathetically funny keeping up appearances in the midst of a missing person investigation. The doddery old private detective hired to find Grace (and the money) worries about the whiteness of his false teeth and says the most obvious things in funny ways. And there is the seemingly disconnected story about the road-train driver who bookends the film and ties five random tales into a single Aussie yarn.The cinematography is superb and it carries the film. From lovingly long panoramic landscapes, to backlit gum trees, golden sunrises, the sharp detail of a furtive glance in shallow depth of field, the camera-work is beautifully crafted and quintessentially Australian. Acting is excellent although based more on good casting than fine performance – there is little room for character development in a film cut five ways. It is also deliberately slow in parts; rather than looking like parents in crisis we see dad's clumsy preoccupation with his own guilt, mum's growing anxiety about her marriage and looking good in gym wear, and Grace just takes her time like any teenager. Minor reservations aside, this is an engaging tale told in the finest Aussie tradition.

About 25 minutes into the film, my wife leaned over to me and whispered, "Are we in the right cinema?".I was wondering the same thing myself. What we were seeing was not what we were expecting, based on the publicity materials. Was this trying to be an art-house film? Is this the depths to which Australian cinema has descended?The pace of the movie was slow, with quite unimaginative direction. The idea of slicing a story so that it is seen from various perspectives is not new, and has been executed far better in other movies. But if you are going to do that you need to make sure that the sequences are directed in a snappy fashion.The script was also weak. There were some areas that were clearly under-developed; some areas that went on far too long and were in need of some decent script editing; some parts that were really not required at all (what did Bruce's story add?); and other ideas (such as the "Rosemary's driving" running gag) that simply fell flat. A couple of the scenes with Norris and Roxburgh had spark, but we are talking two experienced actors here.I assume that some pruning had already taken place, as there were some threads mentioned earlier in the film that were not followed through at all.In summary, this came across as a good idea for a short film (for a final year student). How on earth anyone was convinced to green light this as a fully fledged feature speaks well of the persuasive powers of those involved.