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THE TENDER HOOK
Australia, 2008, 105 minutes. Colour.
Hugo Weaving, Rose Byrne, Tyler Coppin, John Batchelor, Matthew Le Nevez, Pia Miranda, Luke Carroll.
Directed by Jonathan Ogilvie.
The Tender Hook is set in Sydney in the 1920s. The film-makers have used stock footage of Sydney at the period, colourised it and have been able to blend the action into this background. This gives the film a more authentic feel, complemented by its set design, costumes and décor. However, Hugo Weaving sings two songs, one by Leonard Cohen and the other by Bob Dylan. There are some other anachronisms in the film – which a contemporary audience would not notice.
The film is about a petty gangster, played with intensity by Hugo Weaving. He is called Mc Heath – the name of the central character in The Beggar’s Opera. Rose Byrne plays his kept woman, Iris. They both give very strong performances. Tyler Coppin and John Batchelor are his two thugs – and give very strong performances in idiosyncratic roles. Matthew Le Nevez is the boxer taken up by Mc Heath. Luke Carroll is the Aboriginal boxer who is rejected by the public, highlighting the racist attitude in Australia at the time.
The film is a sports drama, centring on boxing. It is also a gangland drama, with Hugo Weaving portraying a ruthless and controlling boss. It is also a complex romantic drama, with Iris falling in love with the boxer, with dire consequences.
The film was directed by Jonathan Ogilvie, a director of short films prior to this feature film.
1. Sydney in the 1920s, the jazz age, the boxing world, the crime world?
2. The recreation of the period, the costumes and décor, the use of footage from the period, colourised, blending with the action? The cars, the streets, the incomplete Sydney Harbour Bridge, the lavish cinema? The audience immersed in the period?
3. The musical score, Hugo Weaving singing the more contemporary songs?
4. The opening on the bridge, Mc Heath and Iris, watching Ronnie and Donnie with the boxer? About to throw him off the bridge? The flashback? The wide range of the plot, audience attitudes changing towards the central characters? The return to Ronnie and Donnie, Art and his impending death? Mac and his coming out of the car, his reaction to his thugs? Iris hitting him, the body thrown off the bridge? The future for all involved?
5. Mac as the focus, Hugo Weaving’s strong performance? The background of the Beggar’s Opera character? Seeing him singing in his club? The boxing world, watching the fights with Iris, his yes-men at the back? Art becoming his protégé? Sparring partner for Alby? Going to the cinema, the reaction to the hostility towards Jack Johnson, African American? His summoning Alby, letting him go? Giving Art an opportunity? The training? His relationship with Iris, the kept woman, her money allowance, the bet on Phar Lap? The Hackett story, her attempted intervention, his refusing? His brutality towards Hackett, the pearls, killing him because of the accusation about the beer-smuggling? Ronnie and Donnie as his yes-men? Consulting them? Their jobs? The beer racket, his not suspecting the perpetrators? The drugs? Art and his failure, his being drugged? Mac rejecting him? Seeking him out, the different plan? The false American identity, the press conference, Iris and her pretending to be his wife, being photographed? The plan for Alby to defeat him, humiliate him? Iris’s warning, the knockout? Mac and his treatment of the trainer, slashing his ankle? The fight, Art and his using his brother’s war medal? Mac and his admiration for the medal? The confrontation? Mac burning the house, Art’s brother’s death? The train ride back to Sydney, Donnie and Ronnie and the opportunity to kill him? Iris coming back to him? Shooting Art? His hostility? On the bridge, his death? A Briton, his opportunities in a new world, supercilious and cruel?
6. Iris, the kept woman, her relationship with Daisy, the two sisters? Money? Sexuality? Watching Art at the fight, going to the change room, pretending to be introduced to him in the car? The attraction? Her bet, Hackett and her father, her trying to help, getting him the ticket to San Francisco? Her grief at his death? Her anger at Art, drugging his drink? Confessing to him after he bashed the car window? The press conference, her American accent and the photos? Giving the note to the senator’s boy, warning Art about the plan? The immediate knockout? The return to Sydney on the train, their sexual relationship? Her work with the beer racket, the brains behind it, diving into the water to retrieve it? Persuading Ronnie? Her presence at the end, her hitting Mac with the golf iron? Her future with Art?
7. Ronnie and Donnie, idiosyncratic characters, yes-men, but with minds of their own, the intellectual talk, the socialism? Muscle and brain? Their reactions to Art? Alby? The beer racket, Ronnie refusing but becoming involved, his having to take Iris’s side and pretend to Mac that he had driven her to the beach? Mac and his docking the money, initially refusing the beer? Ronnie and Donnie, spending the money on suits, suspicions and Iris allaying them to say they were specials? Daisy and the two-headed coin? The experience of being used, insulted by Mac? Siding with Iris and Art? The train and the opportunity to kill Mac? Not taking it? Ronnie puzzling whether Mac could read or write? On the bridge, turning against Mac?
8. Daisy as a follower, her relationship with Iris, dancing on the pier, with Ronnie, her relationship with Alby? Going off with him?
9. Alby, the boxer, Aboriginal background, the reaction in the cinema against Jack Johnson, his awareness of the racism, tossing the ice creams? His being let go by Mac? Still fighting, his injury? With Daisy?
10. The Hackett story, the oriental background? Protection money? The demands on Hackett by Mac? Iris trying to help, giving him the ticket? His being brutalised by Mac, the story of the pearls in his arm? Iris’s father, the lugger, drinking himself to death?
11. The film as a sports film, the boxing world, fixed matches, celebrities, the press and PR?
12. As a crime drama, petty gangsters, local gangsters, the 20s?
13. As a love story, Iris from kept woman to woman in love?
14. An Australian 21st century film noir?