HORSEPLAY

Australia, 2003, 90 minutes, Colour.
Marcus Graham, Tushka Bergen, Jason Donovan, Natalie Mendoza, Abby Cornish, Bill Hunter, Amanda Doogue.
Directed by Stavros Kazantzidis.

Horseplay is the follow-up comedy written and producer by Stavros Kazantzidis and Allanah Zitserman, to Russian Doll. It is narrated by the star of Russian Doll, Hugo Weaving.

The film is a comic and quirky look at Melbourne society, the horse-racing community, with the touches of murder and abduction. It does not quite all work, and has touches of crassness which may put off some potential audiences. However, it also has its moments.

Marcus Graham is an ambitious young trainer who marries the boss's daughter, Tushka Bergen. She decides that she has married beneath herself, especially when her husband is unmasked as substituting a horse and is put off the course for life. Jason Donovan is his womanising lawyer friend and Amanda Doogue does a good turn as his seemingly ditzy wife. Bill Hunter is the owner-trainer who is the big name on the racecourse, not above doing some race-fixing himself.

The film is a comedy of mix-ups, of murder, of greed. It becomes complicated when a group of schoolgirls is involved, one who is on the outer and who, without planning it, is in possession of the tickets for recovering the large amount of money placed on a horse. Two other schoolgirls, especially one very rich and self-centred one, becomes a victim of her flirtation with the lawyer.

The film can probably be described as yet another quirky Australian comedy.

1. The appeal of the film: the horse-race setting, the comedy, the crimes, the mix-ups?

2. The Melbourne settings, Flemington racecourse, affluent homes, the streets? An authentic atmosphere?

3. The title, the play on words?

4. The focus on Max, his ambitions, marrying the boss's daughter? His other liaisons? The hostility of Barry towards him? His keeping an eye on him? Max and his desperation, the horse unable to run (care of Barry) and his substituting the horse? The board and his condemnation? The jail sentence? Alicia and her antagonism towards him? Her being in possession of all the money? Her being spurned by all her friends? Her decision to have a big party, to humiliate Max? The mix-ups at the party? Max and his relationship with his girlfriend, her wanting to have a baby? His plan with Henry? The jockey, his glamorous wife, the abduction, the phone call and warning him to lose the Melbourne Cup? The bets? The discovery of Henry's body? The schoolgirl and her witnessing everything? His returning to the party, getting rid of the body, seeming to have lost everything, seeing an alternate horse on the tickets? The pursuit by the criminals, the pursuit by Barry? His getting away with the money and the collaboration of the schoolgirl?

5. Barry, dominating the racing scene, his sour attitude towards Max, his daughter's marriage? Warning Max off? His wanting to win the Melbourne Cup, pressure on his jockey? His failure to win, the crash, the vengeful abductors and Barry's death?

6. Henry, womanising, the lawyer about town, his relationship with his wife? Deceiving her? The advice to Max? Supporting him? The chef and his dismissal of him as camp? Underestimating him? The plan, the connection with the abductors, the bets? His relationship with the schoolgirl? At their home, the shooting?

7. The schoolgirls and their drugs, sex? The girl's relationship with Henry? Her deceiving her parents? Her snobbish mother, her lewd father? Their return, the discovery of the bodies? The police investigation? Everybody taking time off to watch the Melbourne Cup?

8. Grace, her seeming not to be all there, the irony of her plan to kill Henry, her friend, his devotion to her? The irony of his being shot, the body being disposed of? Her getting the insurance and going to the Bahamas?

9. The jockey, his glamorous wife, the interviews, the pressure from Barry, the phone call about the abduction? His losing the race? The wife, her being abducted, let go?

10. The criminals, inefficient, the car, the abduction, taping the wife and keeping her in the car? The discovery of the death, Henry seen to seeming to betray them? The suspicions on Max, the hurrying towards him, the crash, the confrontation with Barry?

11. The girl, her policeman father, her rebellion, her being caught up in the shootings, getting rid of the body, helping Max - and a happy ending, with the money?

12. The allegedly camp friend, cooking, his obsession with Grace, agreeing to kill Henry, his doing it, the confrontation with Max, his death?

13. A complicated plot, the light treatment (with the crass touches)?