THREE DOLLARS
Australia, 2005, 119 minutes, Colour.
David Wenham, Frances O’ Connor, Sarah Wynter, Joanna Hunt- Prokhovnik, Robert Menzies, Julia Blake.
Directed by Robert Connelly.
David Wenham plays Eddie, the hero of Robert Connolly’s film, Three Dollars, adapted by director and writer from Elliot Perlman’s novel. He is a good man.
Robert Connolly produced that powerful film, The Boys, directed by Rowan Wood. It too starred David Wenham. However, in The Boys Wenham portrayed one of the most evil characters you could find up there on the screen. Released from gaol, he comes back home and spends the day with increasing and relentless malevolence affecting the life of his brothers, mother and girlfriend. A friend said that she had seen the play of The Boys on stage and David Wenham’s performance was so palpably menacing that she felt uncomfortable being in the same room as he was at the reception afterwards. He is a persuasive actor.
He then experienced a Sea Change and became the likeable Diver Dan. He also became considerably holier, though very down to earth, when he portrayed the robust saint, Fr Damien, in Paul Cox’s Molokai. He donned friar’s robes as a special Vatican assistant to Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing hunting Richard Roxburgh as Dracula!
It is not easy to portray a very good man on screen. Often he just seems too good to be true. That is no effective role model. James Stewart could do it – and did it often. Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath and The Wrong Man could do it as well. David Wenham is not an icon like those two Hollywood greats. But, in Three Dollars, he is a man who is recognisably decent and good but who is your average man in the street, a genially Ocker Everyman.
In flashbacks, he appears more extraverted when he was a young student than he does as a consulting engineer in middle age. He is shown as fairly down to earth (literally as he has to examine the toxicity in the soil on a property to be developed near Horsham). On the other hand, he liked asking questions and checking out possibilities when he was younger. And the crisis concerning the moral issues in the toxicity matter now makes demands on his conscience.
The point to Eddie’s good Everyman is that he is a feeling man. Eddie is a loving man, devoted to his sometimes depressed wife Tanya (Frances O’ Connor) and to his daughter. He can be tempted by a house guest, but has the moral strength and respect to resist. He does more than he needs to in examining the soil, going back to check his findings and his speculations (and later being charged by his mean-minded boss for going over his budget). He is a man who believes that he should try to do the right thing by people.
One of the themes of Three Dollars is that no good deed is not rewarded and that these good deeds have their blessed consequences, that while there might be six degrees of separation, there might be far fewer degrees to join us in connectedness.
He is kind to an alcoholic he meets near his house, stops and talks. Huge repercussions for this kindness at the end of the film, even to saving his life as well as opening his eyes to the plight of the poor and homeless. He gives some coins to a street beggar – and later is lent his coat when he is down and out. He also comes to the old man’s rescue when racist thugs bash him on a railway platform. He helps an elderly lady who has fallen in Flinders St, going out of his way to get her something to eat and to buy some aspirin - and just reaching his appointment by the skin of his teeth. The only time he misses out (because he is so preoccupied with his daughter’s diagnosed epilepsy) is buying some food for a neglected old man in the hospital corridor who just wants something to eat – and gives him three dollars. At the end of the film, three dollars is all he has in the bank.
Eddie makes no big deal about acting on his feelings. He takes this for granted. Tanya helps him realise again that doing the right thing is leaking his report to The Age and, despite mortgage, medical bills and general lack of funds, leaving his secure job in the department. No matter what, he has his wife and daughter.
It is interesting to note that this is a theme that emerged in 2004 in Tom White. In that film Colin Friels’ Tom drops out of his security, job and family at the beginning and wanders the St Kilda streets to discover his empathy for ordinary and for marginalised human beings and to act on his Feeling function. Perhaps Tom White was on his journey towards becoming a Three Dollar Everyman.
It is good to see and encouraging to reflect on that Australian film-makers, without fuss or flourish, are creating some rightly decent male role models in our increasingly materialistic world.
1. Australian society at the beginning of the 21st century? Lifestyle, work opportunities, family, hopes? Issues of the environment? Government? Ethics and public morality? Vision?
2. The Melbourne settings, the suburbs, the countryside to the west of Melbourne? The musical score, the range of songs?
3. The structure of the film: Eddie’s dismissal and packing, the flashbacks, meeting Amanda every nine and a half years, the beginnings of the relationship with Tanya and its development, the wedding, Amanda? The birth of Abby? The glimpses of Eddie’s past? The effect for a portrait of Eddie, Tanya, marriage and love?
4. The title, mortgage problems, Eddie having three dollars in the bank at the end? And the old man in the hospital having given him three dollars to buy some food?
5. The situation, Eddie at work, packing, being escorted out, the papers flying in the wind? The flashbacks, the importance of Amanda and his seeing her?
6. Eddie and his job, chemical engineer, surveying? Gerard as the new boss, the discussions amongst the staff? Eddie and his being at home with the staff? The planned development, beyond Horsham and the Grampians? His visiting the site, his being sprayed? His suspicions? Claremont and his wealth? Eddie returning, the shower, his second visit, checking for chemicals? His visit and his finding the chemical dump? The maps, his writing the reports, going over Gerard’s head with his report, leaking his report to The Age, the expose? The consequences for him? The consequences for Gerard? And Eddie’s explanation of going over his head, not to bother him?
7. The picture of Eddie, in the past, a young man, compassionate, studying, his love for the music, in the shop, listening with Tanya, their shared moments, the records, the relationship, the possibilities of marriage? Tanya leaving him, her relationship with Gerard, the letter, her return? The wedding, the family, the birth of their daughter? The picture of Eddie’s parents, the Gold Coast, the ill father, the phone calls to the mother? Tanya’s mother, her love for her granddaughter and playing with her? Eddie and his job, Tanya and her studies, her depression, tantrums, life at home, life with his daughter, a good life?
8. Eddie as a good and compassionate man, with his wife and daughter, the details of home life, his being nice to people? The friend and her marriage problems, Tanya inviting her to stay, Eddie agreeing? The night encounter with Nick, his dog, Eddie not being able to take the dog but having listened to Nick and his alcoholic story? His care for his daughter and her illness, the old man in the hospital giving him three dollars for food and his forgetting it? Giving money to the beggar in the street? The woman who fell, helping her for some food, getting the aspirin, at the risk of being late for his meeting? His encounter with Nick again, the old man with the coat, Nick taking him to the shops, getting the refund on the mouldy garlic bread, going to the shelter, meeting the poor? At the station, his having seen the group harass the Vietnamese students, their bashing the old man, his coming to his assistance, his being bashed himself? His seeing life on the margins, getting rubbish out of the bins? Getting the chickens as compensation and going home? The interconnectedness of good deeds and the repercussions for the good man?
9. Tanya, in herself, her past, her relationship with Gerard, the happiness with Eddie, the wedding, Abby? Her listening to her friends, sharing? Her tantrums, phone calls? The talk about her friend’s marriage and the possibility of their own break-up? Her being out when Abby had the fit, at the hospital? Her coping with her depression, losing her job, not telling Eddie, his reading the letter? Her support of Eddie – and his not telling her about losing his job and her discovering it from the office?
10. The friend, her marriage break-up, staying? Alone with Eddie, the advance, the kiss – his stopping? His fidelity to Tanya? Her returning to her husband?
11. The story of Amanda, the flashbacks, Eddie and Amanda at school, their relationship, Amanda and her having to leave school, her wealthy family, her father? At age eighteen and her virtually ignoring him? At twenty-seven, her being glad to see him, wanting to talk, her relationships, her future, his about to marry? Confiding in him? The chance meeting at thirty-eight, talk? The irony of his losing his job and going to the agency and finding her as the interviewer, his running away? Her card, people finding it on him at the station, calling her to the hospital, her meeting Tanya?
12. The glimpse of the people on the margin: Nick, alcoholic, walking his dog, the later meeting, meeting the beggars, getting the coat, teaching Eddie the tricks of the trade, the bins, the mouldy garlic bread, taking it for a refund, getting the chicken? The old beggar, his giving Eddie the coat, his being bashed at the station and Eddie going to his rescue? The old man in the hospital, wanting to talk, the three dollars for food? The woman who fell, his helping her, her wanting aspirin? The repercussions of good deeds?
13. Eddie as an Australian everyman, middle-class, good, self-deprecating humour, sentiment, honesty? His memories of his being radical in the past, discussions with Tanya, wondering whether they were becoming conservative? The issues of reports, doing approvals at minimum rate? His ethical and moral stances about the Claremont project?
14. A picture of Australian society, government, corruption, corporations, money? Individuals trapped within society? Honest decision-making? Solidarity with the poor, goodness?
