NEVER TOO LATE

Australia, 2020, 98 minutes, Colour.
James Cromwell, Jack Thompson, Dennis Waterman, Roy Billing, Shane Jacobson, Jacki Weaver, Renée Lim, Max Cullen, Zachary Wan.
Directed by Mark Lamprell.

The title is obviously a signal that this is a story about old age. And, an unexpected story it is. While there are very serious undertones, it all plays as pleasing comedy.

The setting is Adelaide, the city looking good at the end of the film. But the main location is Hogan Hills (Paul Hogan or Hogan’s Heroes or both!), a retirement home. And, inside the home, is an entertaining cast. Jack Thompson gives a very enjoyable performance as Angus, memory slipping, his denying it, always a mischievous sparkle in his eye. And, in a wheelchair, is Roy Billing as James, doing his familiar somewhat deadpan style, but always enjoyably. And, with an international touch, there is Dennis Waterman, migrated from the UK.

Actually, the main star is American James Cromwell (memories of the Babe films). At the opening, he is trying to infiltrate into the home, pretending to be incapacitated, but wanting to link with his comrades from 50 years earlier. So, an underlying theme is involvement in the Vietnam war, special squads train for break-ins and breakouts, who have experienced imprisonment and escape. Cromwell is Jack Brosnan, the leader come to involve his old friends in a 21st-century mission. Also in the home is Hank, played by Max Cullen, an old veteran on his last legs.

There is opening voice-over for the film spoken by Jacki Weaver who plays Norma, moving into Alzheimer’s, who worked as a nurse in Vietnam, had farewelled Jack Brosnan on the jetty, is going into action, but she had expected a proposal. Well, as the title says, never too late!

The old codgers, who have a good way with Aussie colloquialisms and larrikin style, have happy memories but also get tangled in their memories. And they find a new recruit for their exploits, a young lad from school who goes to the home each afternoon because his Vietnamese mother works there (Zachary Wan). He is eager for mischief. And he puts his talent for mischief to good use in helping the cause.

There is a complication because the head nurse, also Vietnamese, turns out to have a connection with the veterans through her father back in the day.

While the breakout happens, as we would expect, it doesn’t work out in the way that they had expected. They steal a hearse, go to a football match because James wants to reconnect with his son, Bruce, to whom he had written for years but whose response is “return to sender�. And Bruce turns out to be Shane Jacobson, shorts and singlet and off to the footy and AFL style barracking). It turns out that Angus had won the Brownlow medal in 1973 and it is on display. The Englishman has terminal cancer but has a yacht and would like to die on his yacht.

Will Norma be on the jetty? Will she be lost in Alzheimer’s? Will she remember the past? Will she get a proposal? Perhaps the title is a spoiler: never too late!

A pleasing Australian comedy, easy to watch, a film for the younger generation to take their grandparents to!

1. An Australian comedy? Characters, behaviour, vocabulary and slang, larrikin, ironies?

2. The Adelaide settings, the nursing home and interiors, the surrounding suburbs, the trip into the city, the football ground, the tram, the beach and jetties? The musical score? The range of popular songs – House of the Rising Sun, I Can See Clearly now…? Memories of the 1960s?

3. The plausibility of the plot? A comic perspective? Mateship, shared dangers, the consequences? Residence in aged care? The ironies of breaking into the home, breaking out?

4. Norma, her initial comments, the introduction, her character, the beginnings of dementia, in the home, going for the experiment, the later revelation of her life story, Jack Brosnan not proposing to her on the jetty, his going to war, the message that he was MIA, her work as a nurse, retiring, coming home, marrying the doctor, child, his death?

5. James Cromwell as Jack Brosnan, the leader, 50 years earlier in Vietnam, the group, their nicknames, breaking the chains? Brosnan, in the wheelchair, the tests and his feeble response, the pretence, wanting to see Norma, meeting her, memories of the jetty? Her being taken to the other home protests? His being interned?

6. The other members of the group, Jack Thompson as Angus, his comic style, poor memory, his improvising, friendships? His memories of the Brownlow medal of 1973? Jeremiah Caine, Dennis Waterman and his film and television career, migrating to Australia, his terminal cancer? James Wendel, Roy Billings and his screen presence and style, robbing banks after Vietnam, in prison, alienated from his wife, writing letters to his son, Bruce, their being returned to sender? The response to seeing Jack Brosnan again? The attitudes towards him, his leadership? His unveiling the plan?

7. The staff, Lin, strict supervision, drugs and Jack, the Vietnamese background, the irony of her father being a guard in Vietnam, allowing the group to escape, his death? The end and the revelation of this to Lin? Her reaction?

8. Elliott, his age, school, his mother working at the home, nothing to do, eager with the group, becoming part of them, his exploits, getting keys, changing prescriptions on the computer, becoming part of the action?

9. Hank, his age, wanting to be in on the act, their agreeing, his death? Moving his body, the hearse, the guards with the hearse, Wendel hitting them, the escape in the hearse?

10. The planning, the details, yet having to improvise? Each man’s response, bringing his particular style and humour?

11. Caine and his yacht, his part in the plan, his yacht, to die on his yacht? Angus, to the football grounds, the Brownlow medal on display, his taking it? James Wendell, meeting his son, Bruce, working outside, singlet and shorts, going to the football, typical barracking? Bruce reconciled to his father?

12. Lin, the doctors, the police, the pursuit, the group getting on the tram, going to the beach, Norma on the jetty, her memory, Jack jogging it, the jetty, the proposal, her thinking about it for a minute, acceptance?

13. Three months later, the wedding? And the belief in happy endings?

14. Australia, involvement in Vietnam, 50 years earlier, the exploits, the dangers, imprisonment and torture, escapes? The aftermath in consequences?