TOM WHITE
Australia, 2004, 110 minutes, Colour.
Colin Friels, Rachel Blake, Bill Hunter, Loene Carmen, Daniel Spielman, John Brumpton.
Directed by Aleksi Tsilimidos.
At the Australian Film Institute Awards for 2004, Somersault received thirteen nominations and won in all categories. While Somersault deserves congratulations, it is a pity that there was not a more even spread of awards, an acknowledgement of the value of other nominees. 2004 was a slight year for Australian production, but one film that merited greater attention was Tom White, especially for Colin Friels' performance in the title role. He should have been voted best actor.
Perhaps Tom White was too sombre a film for many tastes. After all, the story of a man in midlife crisis, finally standing at the crossroads of his future is not your cheery night out. Nevertheless, it was well worth seeing - not only for its portrait of this middle-aged man but for the symbolism of what he represented in Australian urban society. Tom White is a symbol of Australian business success, with all its prestige, conveniences and trappings, which is ultimately found wanting. Tom White's symbolic journey amongst the less successful people in society, those who find themselves or choose to be at the margins, is a challenge to audiences to discover where there social and human values lie.
Faced with a character who is manifesting pathological traits, we find it difficult to do an accurate Type study (which is a healthy reminder that we are dealing with films, stories which the writer and director did not intend as psychological case studies, so any analysis is speculative and open to re-interpretation). It is difficult to state whether Tom White has been a successful introvert or extravert, sensing or intuitive type, thinker or feeler, judger or perceiver. The opening of the film seems to indicate that he has exercised all the attitudes and functions. Speculation might lead to stating that he seemed more intuitive, thinking and judging.
Taking him as symbolic, however, and his journey is archetypal.
What Tom White does is walk away from his life. His marriage has become brittle. He has failed at work and is on the way out - and walks out. His poise and acumen are gone. After an alcoholic binge, he literally disappears from his taken-for-granted safe world. The business world no longer matters to him.
Tom's journey through the underside of Melbourne is not quite a pilgrimage through an Inferno. Rather, it serves as a journey through a kind of Purgatorio. The people that he encounters represent the inhabitants of an urban purgatory which could eventually lead them to their hell. Tom moves in with a rent boy, has an affair with a drug addict and experiences the brutality of her supplier, stays with an old man who has not quite opted out of life but has bypassed it and observes it with a wry wisdom, but still finds a woman to relate to, and a boy who has run away from a middle-class home. What effect does this St Kilda experience have on Tom?
He has moved out of an isolated introversion. He is not dependant on his inner world for support - which it was failing to supply anyway. He goes 'out there' and discovers that he can relate to men and women that he previously would not have encountered or would have avoided. In fact, he discovers that he is 'energised' by his friendship and contact with them.
The world that he enters is a very practical world where intuitions and shrewdness are necessary for physical survival but are not the main focus for everyday living. A place to stay, shelter, something to eat, the bodily warmth and companionship of people today, tonight, here and now, are what he experiences. It is the same with his criteria for his decisions - his decisions concerning others and his lack of decision concerning his own life. It may have been necessary for him to be analytic and logical in the past, to be reasonable in his dealing with wife, bosses and clients. Here, in his purgatory, it is the men and women themselves who are important. It is the subjective circumstances of their way of life, its difficulties (sexual exploitation, drug abuse, murderous violence) that determine what decisions are made.
It is, perhaps, too strong to say that decisions are made. Rather, Tom is now more open to the flow of life, to the unpredictability of surviving on the streets. He learns to be less of a controller.
Tom White is a portrait of contemporary life in the margins of an Australian city. Its director, Aleksi Tsilimidos, once made a very grim picture of life in a prison, Everynight, Everynight. While he has taken his story outside this time, it is still the picture of people imprisoned by circumstances and choices. Some, like the old man, choose not to get out. The rent boy still has a choice. The addict is killed. The boy has his life before him and needs reconciliation with his family. This is what Tom discovers about people, about life and about himself. His crisis has opened up to him a down-to-earth world of sensing and feeling. This is part of his individuation in his crisis. The open ending means that we continue to wonder how much he has absorbed and how much it will influence the next phase of his life.
1. A Melbourne drama? People on the margins? Affluent people, mid-life crises and the consequences?
2. The Melbourne settings, the use of many locations, affluent offices and homes, the contrast with St Kilda, the streets and the lanes, the flats, trailers, empty buildings, police precincts?
3. The importance of the musical score, Paul Kelly and his song based on Psalm 23, the religious dimensions of God, the valley of darkness, compassion?
4. A story of the homeless, homeless on the street, the older men, unkempt, bearded, dirty? Wondering how they got there, why they got there? The film offering an answer?
5. The prologue, Matt as the homosexual prostitute, Christine with Phil injecting her with drugs, Malcolm sitting, an old man at his window, Jet and his friends, age twelve, sniffing glue? Introducing the marginalised of sexuality, drugs, age and youth, thieves?
6. Tom at home, the nice house, waking up at 6.30, his relationship with his wife, the children, the ordinary and matter-of-fact routines, breakfast, homework, seeing the kids to school, going to work?
7. The reality of his job and his inability to face it? At his desk, his awkwardness, his hands trembling, ill and its mental repercussions, talking to himself? His having been taken off the project and not telling anyone, not admitting it to himself? The interview with his boss, his being told to go on holiday? His mates at the pub, drinking the beer, his outbursts?
8. His not going home, his continuing to drink, wandering the city? Running away, was it a choice, did it just happen, did he let it happen?
9. The encounter with Matt, his being brutalised, helping him home? Going into the home, staying? Matt and his helping Tom, the pills? Taking him to the gay club, Tom drinking, exuberant? Matt and his relationship with Paul? Their going out shopping, Matt urging him to get money from the bank, their being mugged by the kids? Going back home, vomiting? Matt telling Tom that he had to leave because Paul was moving in? His moving out?
10. The passing of time, his growing the beard, his being unkempt? At St Kilda, in the park, the carnival, shooting the ducks and winning the prize? The meeting with Christine, having a drink with her, going home? The passionate sexual relationship? Her falling in love with him? Her past drug history? Phil and his vicious dog, their coming to Christine's apartment? Tom and his ability to talk with Christine, his angers?
Phil and his arrival with his dog, talking to Christine, the dog savaging her, her going to hospital, Tom's disappearance? His wanting vengeance, about to hit the dog, Malcolm stopping him?
11. Malcolm, his personality, age and experience, unkempt? Taking him home, their talking, calling him "son" - and Tom not wanting him to? Going to visit his girlfriend, their strong rapport, enjoying each other's company? Tom and his learning from Malcolm, the key? Malcolm's collapse, going to hospital?
12. Tom staying in Malcolm's room, the encounter with the gang in the street, his threatening them, the police coming, Jet running away? Jet and his age, the discussions about Jet Li, later watching his videos? His being a graffiti artist? His liking to draw? Going with Tom, telling his story, his father as a thief, seeing Jet at home, his father bringing the goods home? Tom going to the house? Leon's arrival, their talking, the police coming, the arrests? Seeing Jet and giving him the key?
13. Tom at the police station, the interrogation, using the computer, finding out his identity? His decisions about what he would do?
14. Meeting his wife? The film interspersed with sequences of his wife, her reaction at his disappearance, with the children, her frustrations, his attempt at a phone call? Her anger, listening to him? His sitting in the car? The future?
15. The final sequence, Tom and his being cleaned up, alone in the room, reading the paper - looking out the window - and to his future? What would he do?
