I love Guy Pearce, with or without nose putty, so I picked up The Hard Word from 2002. It also stars Rachel Griffiths of "Six Feet Under" fame, Robert Taylor, Joel Edgerton, and Damien Richardson.Pearce, Richardson, and Edgerton play the Twentyman brothers, Dale, Mal, and Shane. They're experienced armed robbers. They are currently in prison, but when they're released on bail, they have time for one job until they need to return to prison due to a "paperwork" problem.Their attorney, Frank (Robert Taylor) is in love with Dale's wife Carol (Griffiths), and Dale suspects. He wants to run away with her. Frank arranges for them to pull off a multi-million dollar heist in Melbourne, though Dale questions his motives. Frank has some locals to work with them - and Dale sees how this is going to play out. The locals will work with them, all right, then kill them. Frank will then have Carol to himself. The heist portion of this film was definitely the best part, very exciting, moved quickly, with a lot of suspense and cleverness. As for the rest of it, I didn't care for it as I did't like any of the characters, nor do I like pig slaughter, a description of it, and talk of blood sausages. Yuk.As a blond, Griffiths looked terrific and did a good job as Dale's sexy and cool wife.The rest of the acting was good - Pearce, Edgerton, Richardson, and Taylor are all familiar faces. Pearce is a true chameleon and pulled off the low-rent Dale very well, and Taylor was handsome and smooth as their manipulative attorney.Not a favorite. I think men will like it, though.

"The Hard Word", just another B-flick about a bunch of people after a bunch of money, sticks Pearce front and center with a beard and perpetual sneer as a bad/good guy with Griffiths looking equally out of her element as his blond bimbo in a padded bra. Everything about this convoluted flick is ordinary, uninspired, and just so much of the same old stuff we've all seen soooooo many times before. "The Hard Word" does not distinguish itself in any way and is probably destined to die a slow death on late night Aussie tv. A step backward for Pearce and Griffiths. Not recommendable. (C)

"The Hard Word" is a gritty, sexy, Australian take on the double-crossing heist movie. We get to hear Guy Pearce (long-haired and greasy) and Rachel Griffiths (blonde and wet) go native in their accents in an entertainingly original script by first-time director Scott Roberts. While not the first film to have quirky brothers-in-crime as the comfortable loyalty fulcrum, the familial psychological pathologies make for a nice counterpoint to the friends', foes', and femme fatale's twists and turns. There's more jokes and ironic humor than even the violence, which helps to block out some quizzical plot turns. The movie never tells us that the title is Ozzie slang, among other blunt phrases used throughout (such as the tendency of Ozzie blokes to affectionately call each other the "c" word). My Down Under friend Bronwyn translates (used with her permission): "In it's 'ultimate' usage it means to pressure someone for sex. If you were talking to a girlfriend who went out on a date with someone new, you might ask 'did he put the hard word on?' However, it is sometimes also used just in a general sense of exerting pressure. In fact, it was in a headline in our local suburban paper ("The Leader") yesterday: 'Minister puts the hard word on district pollies [politicians].' An article about the State Minister for Local Government pushing the local councils to sort out boundary reforms."

The Hard Word is the result of what happens when you take a bunch of OK ideas, string them together and just hope the rest falls into place. Unfortunately it doesn't. the film tries to be a character driven piece, but never bothers developing its characters. This film is hard to connect with. At no point does it actively engage its audience. A bunch of stuff happens, but you just don't care.The script is second rate at best. More often than not, trite contrivances drive the story and characters do completely illogical things (often going out of their way to do so) for no reason. I've heard more better conceived and more logical storylines from my 6 year old nephew. Half the characters could easily be written out of the film without affecting the film in any negative way (take Rachel Griffiths character; half her involvement in the film seems like an afterthought - something they came up with when the producers realised they had a "real" actress on board).Acting is a highly mixed bag. Most of the characters aren't too bad, but some are awful. The character "Frank" had the worst timing for delivering lines I've ever come across in a major character. Many of the extras or minor characters are crap.A poorly directed mess, which at the same time is not unwatchable. wait until it's on TV, or if you're really keen to see it video. Certainly not worth the time or money on the big screen. 4/10