TWO BROTHERS RUNNING

Australia, 1988, 87 minutes, Colour.
Tom Conti, Richie Singer, Elizabeth Alexander, Deborah Lee- Furness, Dorothy Allison, John Gregg.
Directed by Ted Robinson.

Two Brothers Running is a very entertaining comedy. It was written by novelist, Morris Lurie. It was directed by Ted Robinson, director of many television comedy as well as the films, The Settlement and Kokoda Crescent. The film has a Jewish setting (a Melbourne version of Norman Love's Rose, set in Sydney.) Tom Conti. is particularly good as Moses, the Jewish writer from Poland via the United States. The film gives Conti an opportunity to do many turns, use his natural capacity for wit as well as national impersonations. Richie Singer is quite good as his brother Ben. Elizabeth Alexander appears as his wife.

The film is particularly Jewish in its language and tone, its focus on Jewish customs. To that extent, it throws light on a minority group in Australia. However it relies on the well known devices of Jewish comedy. While the film is funny, there are serious undertones, a man in mid-life, facing himself, his relationships, crisis of career as well as comparisons with his brother. The film has the touch of the bittersweet.

1. Entertaining comedy? Australian atmospher? Jewish?

2. The literary style of the film, the screenplay by a novelist and short story writer? The world of films and screenplays? The verbal humour and wit?

3. The use of Melbourne locations, the visits to Sydney, the Australian highways? The songs and musical score? The jazz background?

4. Moses and the opening with the psychiatrist, his head upside-down, the close-up, his eyes? Talking? His Polish background, in the US, relationship with his parents, his relationship with Ben? Coming to Australia? His wife, children? In himself?

5. The portrait of Moses and Tom Conti's presence and style? Humour, droopy, the range of voices? His history? His telling of stories and jokes and people knowing the punch lines? The screenplay and the robbery, the Jewish family, the son, the finale with the son robbing the father? The story about Elmer the Elephant as a symbol of Moses? In the jungle, wanting to go back to the circus, being made to act, to jump through the hoops, finding the space empty, breaking the trampoline, going back to the jungle? His relationship with his wife, life at home? Initial meal, the squabbling children, the phone call from Ben? Ben's influence on the rest of the family? His wife and her studies, the university and his disdain of univerisities? Their sexual relationship, humour, play? His visit to his uncle and aunt, the question of food? His work, going to tell the story to the executivei the secretary and her attractiveness, the later meal, the seduction and the affair? Ben's arrival, so lively, the gifts and the toys, the attraction for the kids? Jogging with the football? Going to things with his wife, the gymnasium and the aerobics? Her anger about the wedding invitation? The visit of the academic and his wife, his telling Ben and talking about children, dressing up, their being ignored? His own preoccupation with the the affair? The visit out because of the aunt, stories at the table, drunk? The jazz? The humour? The wedding invitation? The decision to go, taking the the gift of the jazz record? The wedding, the questions, troubles? The dinners with Nelson and Nelson's girls? Moses and his later preoccupation? The secretary to his uncle, his aunt unwell, his lies? His wife finding going to the hospital? His moving out? The visit to Sydney, talking to Ben, their arguments, reconciliation? A future? Ben telling him the truth, his having to face it? Himself, responsibilities, a reconciliation with his wife and children? A new beginning?

6. Ben and his vitality, his engaging personality with the wife and children, the toys, the disguise, the arrival, going jogging, not inviting the neice and nephew to the wedding? Moses arguing him into it? The wedding and the guests, ignoring them? The visit at the end - and yet his capacity to tell Moses the truth?

7. Moses' wife, their love, the decision to study, her business, keeping cool, her anger with Ben, playful? The discovery of the truth, Ben hurt? The confrontation? Reconciliation?

8. The sketch of the kids, their love for their father, love for Ben, support? Their fights? The trip, the disappointment, all the mishaps on the way home with the car, loving their father?

9. The caretaker lady and her eccentricities, watching the televidton, her pessimism going to sleep, her illness but not going to the doctor, the phone calls, the relationship with Moses?

10. The executive producer, listening to the story, his cigar?

11. His assistant, her charm, listening to the story, the outing with Moses, the meal, the seduction, the lies, his waiting outside her house and seeing her with someone else?

12. Nelson, the world finance, women, mid-life crisis?

13. The sketch of the uncle and aunt, the relationship with Moses, his visits, feeding him, the aunts illness?

14. The importance of Jewish humour, manner, style, traditions - in Australia?

15. Insightful and humorous portrait of characters and crisis?