THREE BLIND MICE

Australia, 2008, 94 minutes, Colour.
Matthew Newton, Toby Schmitz, Ewan Leslie, Gracie Otto, Pia Miranda, Heather Mitchell, Barry Otto, Tina Bursill, Jacki Weaver, Bud Tingwall, Brendan Cowell. Bob Franklin, Alex Dimitriades, Marcus Graham.
Directed by Matthew Newton.

Three Blind Mice was written and directed by Matthew Newton. Newton also takes the central role of the unsympathetic sailor, Harry. Newton has had a successful career but has had problems in real life. This film shows what he is capable of in terms of writing, on directing, acting.

The three blind mice of the title are three sailors, on leave before taking up duties again. There have been problems with one of them, Sam, Ewan Leslie, who has been humiliated and hazed. One of the sailors, Dean,Toby Schmitz, has participated in the hazing and is ashamed. The third sailor is Harry, played by Matthew Newton, irresponsible, playing pranks and forgetting that he has set them up, blunt in his talking with people.

The film is very much dialogue-driven, especially the opening sequences in the hotel with the three sailors, establishing their characters and the tensions. There are scenes between Sam and a young woman whom he has met while the others play cards. He spends some time with her, eventually taking her home to meet his mother, a very acerbic Jacki Weaver, and his grandfather, played by Charles Tingwall. These scenes are quite psychologically dramatic and powerful.

The other strong sequence is that of the meal which Dean has with his fiancee, Pia Miranda, and interesting cameo turns by Heather Mitchell and Barry Otto as her parents. This is a sequence where uncomfortable truths untold.

Sam returns to the hotel and is beaten by the pimp of the escort that Harry had organised and forgotten. The pimp gets the worst of the fight and most of the characters finish up at the hospital. The three sailors have to think through whether they will go AWOL or whether they will return to duty.

1. The title, the sailors, see how they run…?


2. The work of Matthew Newton, writing, directing, acting? Taking an unsympathetic role? The relationship of his character to his real life and problems?

3. The film as dialogue-driven, conversations and interactions? Character-driven? Characters responding to events?

4. The strong Australian cast?

5. The Australian Navy, after 9/11? Duties, hazing and the responses, victimising fellow sailors, decisions to leave, reactions? AWOL?

6. The introduction to the three, Harry and his forceful personality, Dean and the issue of torturing Sam, his worrying about his fiancee and her family? Sam, his experience of trouble, torture? His relationship with his mother?

7. The night before sailing, Sam and the effect of his experience, having the shower? Harry, the phone call, booking the escort, the deals, the details – and his being careless and forgetting?

8. The talk among the three, establishing their characters? Going out, the restaurant? Emma and her liking Sam? Their being together? The other two, joining the card came, the characters playing cards, the reactions?

9. Sam and Emma, walking, talking, their characters, the different backgrounds, leaving the card came, on the roof? Sam going home to his mother? Her reaction, comments on Emma? Going to the hotel, the attack on Sam by the pimp, because of Harry’s carelessness?

10. Sam, his mother, the phone calls, her pressure on him, his arrival, her reactions? The different with Pop? Talking with Pop, drinking? His mother and her nastiness, criticising Sam, criticising Emma? Pop wanting a celebration for the promotion?

11. Dean, games with Sam, following Harry? The card game? Walking the streets? The meal, his fiancee, the chat, her parents, their reactions, the issue of torture? The drinking, the advances? Therapy? The mother and her behaviour? The ineffectual father? Dean talking with his fiancee? AWOL or not?

12. Harry, his responsibility, playing games with people, the meal, the talk, bluntness in his talk, to Deans fiancee’s mother? The return, finding the blood?

13. The hotel, the pimp in the attacks, his injuries, going to hospital, the prostitute present, her reaction?

14. The final confrontations, the truth? Their going back to the Navy, on duty?