I CAN'T GET STARTED

Australia, 1985, 100 minutes, Colour.
John Waters, Wendy Hughes, Heather Mitchell, Ben Gabriel, Sandy Gore.
Directed by Rodney Fisher.

I Can't Get Started has the potential for an excellent telemovie. However, it finishes up as a pleasantly average one. Celebrated theatre director Rodney Fisher made his screen debut as screen director with this film, collaborating on the screenplay with author Ray Harding. Photography is by Geoff Burton; music by Cameron Allen - with some satirical inserts of the theme from My Brilliant Career. The cast is excellent - led by John Waters and Wendy Hughes. There are some excellent cameo performances by stars including Sandy Gore, Andrew Mc Farlane and Noel Ferrier as an ocker taxi-driver.

The tone of the film is fairly flippant. It is also set in affluent Sydney, the world of magazine editors and best-seller writers. The film echoes the world of society and the arts - the surface sophistication and the deep human problems. The film is also the portrait of a marriage collapsing, highlighting the factors contributing to marriage breakdown.

1. An enjoyable domestic comedy drama? The conventions of the story of career and marriage breakdown?

2. Sydney locations? An affluent world? The society of literary editors, authors, the arts? The editing and pace? The musical score? The work of Rodney Fisher as a theatre director transferring to television?

3. The title and the reference to creative block? To the lyrics of the song and its use in the final credits)? Reference to the marriage and personal relationships?

4. The focus on Robert as author - his success and his not writing for ten years, the creative block? His playing chess in the park (and the amusing scene of the Yugoslav-Russian? clash)? His friendship with his father-in-law? His tense relationship with his wife? His avoiding the party - and his wandering round, being mistaken for a guest, looked down on by the staff, nagged at by his wife, his friends, celebrity-seekers wanting to talk to him? His going up on the roof? The couple using the bedroom? The verbal clashes with Maggie? The decision to leave, her throwing him out? His extravagance in going to the hotel? His failure to write? The encounter with Jill? His visiting her and discovering the group, going to the Hitchcock film, the encounters with friends? The relationship? Its sparking his creativity? Maggie's jealousy? His jealousy of her - and his snooping in the windows, the artist? The completion of the book? His father-in-law's approval, taking Jill and Robert to dinner to urge the patching up of the marriage? The funeral and the final conversation with Maggie? The breakdown of the marriage? Running in the marathon, his heart on his sleeve, the reconciliation with Jill? A credible portrait of a successful artist? Rock? His being harassed by people expecting him to produce more writing? The relationship with Jill and its future?

5. Maggie and her success, the magazine, socialising, the parties, hostess, exasperation with Robert, controlling people? Her friends? The clashes with Robert and the humour in the house? Her throwing him out? Her curiosity, jealousy of Jill? Dating John and taunting Robert? The attempt at reconciliation? Her relationship with her father, listening to his advice? The funeral? The breakdown of the marriage? Her love of her career?

6. The sketch of Robert and Maggie's social circle - Jenny and Albert and their friendship, playing squash, legal advice, meals at home, playing cards? The mutual friendship? Freddy and Rose and their gossiping, being drunk, land deals, encountering Robert and Jill at the films and curiosity? The world of the magazine - the lady who wanted to write about the Australian Christmas and its uniqueness? Sharon and her gossiping?

7. Jill and her relationship with Anthony, staying the night in the house? The encounter with Robert? His visit to her friends? The beginning of the relationship, her spurring him to write again? The ease of their relationship? Her decision after the meal with Lazarus to break off the relationship, her seeing him on television, the final sequence and their future?

8. The sketch of Lazarus - his friendship with Robert, treating him as a son, giving him advice? His love for his daughter? The meal and his attempt at reconciliation? His death?

9. The sketch of minor characters - the waiters at the party and their tantrums, the various guests, Noel Ferrier as the taxi driver with opinions on marriage and marriage breakdown - the 12-year collapse?

10. A view of Sydney society? Career issues? Capacity for relationships? Commitment? Marriage breakdown? The froth and flippancy of the surface over deeper things?