I came across this movie on Netflix. I had no idea it was a remake. Funny story. You know how at the credits of a movie/show, how Netflix will give you recommended similar movies? Well, I started watching the original "Polish Bride" from there not realizing it was the original. I'm kind of slow. Anywho, the movie was sweet. I generally love watching movies where we get to observe how a character goes through his day so the beginning was perfect. Being the perv I am, the moment I saw how pretty Tahmeena's character was I was really looking forward to an epic love scene only to be left with a short interrupted make out session. I think lacking a love scene and the ending is what didn't make this movie great for me. The ending left us with so much unanswered questions. Also, Monic is sooo much hotter 10 years later. I mean did you see her hair and eyebrows in the original? Yikes!

I agree with most of the comments on this film-it is very Australian, in spite of its Dutch/Polish roots, the acting is spot-on, with one possible exception, the chemistry between the two leads is palpable, and there are no false notes right up to the end. One quibble another reviewer had is about the cop that shows up unbidden every time something unusual goes down at the main character's house which is, to say the least, off the beaten track and not on anybody's nightly rounds. That happens two or three times in the film. The connection seemed pretty clear to me from the first. Another reviewer mentioned the tacit acceptance of human trafficking in the local metropolis (Boonah and/or Beaudesert, near Brisbane). There's your answer. The only problem I had with the film is its ending. It wraps up one major story point, but opens up two or three new ones, then leaves them unresolved: After a life-and-death struggle (I won't say with whom) the two main characters are left alive, reunited and intact at the end, all dressed up-he's wearing a suit for the first time-but in what is clearly a jail or detention center of some kind, although they are not behind bars. Who is "inside" and who is out is not made clear. Where did this come from? True-she's an undocumented alien, and now that her main concern has been resolved, maybe she's just planning to leave Australia for home, but none of that has come up before, and why is he wearing a suit? What is about to happen? Are they getting married, or what? The two main characters have been bonding slowly until this point-and suddenly it's all over? There may be a simple answer, but the scene was so unexpected that it seemed like a damaged print. That startling non-ending is my only reason for giving the film a "7" instead of a 9 or 10.

I'm a sucker for romance. No, I didn't give Legally Blonde a ten, but I'm pretty tragic: I watched Notting Hill three times.That's what I thought I was getting this time. I was wrong.I recorded this, and it was a few months until I got around to watching it.It helps if you don't know that it's a remake: but by now, you do. Or of what... If you've seen the other movie, you can watch this one too: trust me, you have NOT seen it before! When I watched it, I didn't know it was a re-make; I didn't even know it was Australian. I take the point of the poster who said this is two stories compressed into the one movie: it is. He believes that's over-doing it. I respectfully disagree: in Australia, we often find the "one idea" Hollywood treatment of a story quite unsatisfying.This movie had me in from the opening scenes. It's one of the few movies I wouldn't pause to take a phone call. That's my highest accolade, and this one earns it.Notice the high ratings the Australian posters are giving it? That's not entirely because we like our own films. It's also because this has an authenticity that is utterly compelling, if you happen to speak Australian. If you do speak Australian, you will realise that the power of this story is in what is NOT said. Which tends to be the way rural Australians communicate! Outback Australia really is like this: particularly the north of the country.

Yet another small Australian movie made with government money with lots of outback (or at least country) photography featuring laconic Aussie blokes (or one anyway) faced with something strange and sinister. Its origins are in fact Dutch – it is a re-make by Peter Duncan ("Passion" and "Children of the Revolution") of a 1998 Dutch film "The Polish Bride". Sheepfarmer John (William McInnes) has his solitary breakfast interrupted by the arrival of Tahmeena (Monic Hendrickx), a distraught woman who speaks no English. As he suspects she might be an illegal immigrant he takes her in and attempts to communicate with her. He also happens to hear of the disappearance of a cleaner from the pub in the nearby town. Without giving too much away, he finds some longstanding local acquaintances of his have been up to no good, and this leads up to a suspenseful climax.One common complaint about Australian films is the weakness of the scriptwriting. The writers here have given us some very spare dialogue. Tahmeena speaks only her own language and John doesn't speak much anyway. But both main characters have interesting back stories which are revealed gradually through the film. I'm not sure about the ending – there are one or two loose ends flapping about, but it's reasonably upbeat.William McInnes is just superb as farmer John, a man just going through the motions of existence before the exotic Tahmeena arrives at his place, and then jolted into caring for someone again. As an actor he has a good range – compare this performance with the rugged urban type he played in "Look Both Ways" a couple of years ago. Monic Hendrickx, playing 10 years later the same role as she did in "The Polish Bride", is completely convincing as the desperate refugee. David Field as the local cop also gives a good performance and I also must mention Elvis the dog, one of the more personable canines seen on screen lately.This struck me as a reasonably commercial film, like "Wolf Creek" and I'm not sure why one of the TV networks wouldn't have made something like this. There's a story, suspense, good acting, and plenty of gum trees. As an art house movie release, it's not going to get a big audience.