Danny Deckchair

One of the most agonizing script-writing shortcuts is to have a character go 180 degrees from one scene to the next, in one moment being full of love and affection and understanding, and then for whatever reason refusing to talk to the main character, rushing out rudely and refusing any explanation from the main character, in the most unreasonable way. You're not supposed to wonder why this person would do this, you're just supposed to feel the hurt and rejection. If you like these kinds of scenes, buy this movie. Everything about this movie is predictable, tries to be deep and meaningful, and proceeds on the assumption that you've never seen a movie before. An utter failure.

I adore our films-no blood bags, no chainsaws, no interminable car chases, no sexual misrepresentation or stereotyping-in short, NO HOLLYWOOD! As Hollywood seems more and more to parrot the emptiness between the ears of the power brokers in Washington I become increasingly attached to our home-grown film products and Danny Deckchair is a superb example of this non-Hollywood product. As with so many others that are part of this genre, Danny builds its appeal around the humanness of community-the collection of individuals and their essential modesty and humanness. I'm thinking of Paperback Hero, Crackerjack, The Dish and of course The Castle. There can be nothing further from laboratory movies like Matrix Undone or Overdone or something like that. I will see every one of our domestic films as an antidote to the silly glut of Disney trailers I must sit through before the substantial feature begins.

I really liked the plot about Danny Deckchair, so I just had to check it out. I expected a comedy filled of nonstop joking, but hey! It turned out to be a more romantic entertainer than I thought - in a good way! With no well known actors, this movie treats some of the most everyday subjects in life - love and career - with such perfect precision. The balance between love and comedy is close to perfect, but I feel that some more jokes or crazy excursions would have been welcome. Danny is the true king! Haven't you seen it yet and feel for something to see together with your heart of love, check this one out for real! 6/10, since I think it lacked more jokes, but judging the art of romance here, it's a pure 9.

Danny Deckchair is a rare beast in today's ultra-conservative film industry where a tired formula must be stuck to lest the audience not cough up hundreds of millions of dollars. It is a film that goes without the showerings of blood, constant four-letter words, or special effects that could turn a Pentium IV into a puddle of liquid. Instead, it relies on the story and the characters therein to keep the viewer interested, and that is where it succeeds. At its heart, it is simply a story about a man who is living in a virtual cage, a prison with no walls to quote the song. So one fine weekend after he is basically told by all concerned that he will have nothing and never be anything, he accidentally launches himself into the air on a fold-up garden chair with dozens of large helium balloons tied to it. This part actually happened, believe it or not. When Danny lands in a country town several hours North of the home he was sick of in Sydney, he is instantly a local celebrity. He takes up with a local parking cop, and together, the two of them explore things in life that would make them significantly happier than they are now. Meanwhile, back in Sydney, the other prisoners are trying to determine what happened to the escapee when a local policeman in the Northern town, jealous of how happy these two are, decides to let said Sydney prisoners know where their man is. As I said earlier, the film relies very heavily upon the performances of the actors to stay afloat. Rhys Ifans, best known as one of the emaciated, lunatic twins of Twin Town, makes it incredibly easy to sympathise with his character, the titular Danny Deckchair. There is not a moment in the film when I question whether I would do what he does. Miranda Otto, now infamous as Éowyn, the only woman who actually goes into battle during the Lord Of The Rings saga (at least the way Tolkien wrote it), is equally convincing as the parking cop whose life is forever changed by a man falling out of the sky and into her front yard. It's a good thing the whole show rests on the shoulders of these two actors, because they could not have been better chosen. The support cast don't exactly make any waves, but they do give an excellent framework regarding the story. This is particularly clear at the end when Danny finds himself back in Sydney and, disgusted with the way of life there, decides he is far better off in a town where everyone seems to know his name, and not just because it has been broadcast to death on the news. Without the supporting characters who represent Danny's former workmates and significant others, the story would probably fall flat. All in all, I gave the film a nine out of ten. It does have a few moments when the pace slows too far for its own good, but this is one of the best films to come out of Australia since The Pirate Movie. If you get the chance, watch it with as many friends and relatives as possible.

This movie is just plain dumb. It is too cute for it's own good and the idea falls flat after the opening credits. Justine Clarke is particularly uninspiring as the girlfriend. I don't see any chemistry between her and the lead character which might have saved this turkey.

I borrowed this from Netflix because the posted copy sounded promising (yes, I know, it ALWAYS sounds promising). Rhys Ifans and Miranda Otto sold this for me, and I also tend to at least look at pretty much anything shipped from Australia; their films aren't consistently spellbinding (The Dish?) but are often of a quality missing in the studio flicks. I expected to laugh, I expected to want to see the whole film. I laughed once (damned if I can remember at what, but just once) and found the movie, overall, tedious. My wife and I kept getting up and attending to other issues without bothering to pause it. I kept thinking as I watched that 'I bet this sounded funny in the script reading'. For those who felt this outshone Pretty Woman... that's not much competition. It's not the worst film I've ever seen, but I'm afraid I take Rhys and Miranda off my 'must see' list.

Whose idea it was to cast Rhys Ifans as an Australian? Apart from Danny's cringeworthy accent and the implausible motivations of the main characters, the plot was full of holes. How is it that a bearded man arrives in a small country town, has his photo plastered all over the media as the 'balloon man', and yet not one single person recognises him? Why does he wholeheartedly support some dopey local politician, only to turn on him at the last minute for some completely unbeknown reason? The girl he falls for is so completely neurotic that we can see he's in for a life of misery, yet he seems hell-bent on spending the rest of his days with her. In the middle of all this, some strange character who looks like Oscar Wilde's gay lover ends up being a * life-model for a bunch of slavering housewives - where did that come from? Character development? Interesting dialogue? This film had none of that. But, come to think of it, there was ONE redeeming quality: I hardly recognised any of the cast, apart from Rhys and Miranda Otto. At least this was a departure from the normal practice of filling the cast with the same tired old ocker hacks that have featured in every film and TV series ever produced in this country. Very disappointing. Rhys, stick to your Welsh accent, it's so much better. 3/10

If you're looking for a simple, predictable movie with uninteresting acting, then this is for you! After an hour, I turned it off and came here to see what others had to say. I didn't know that the dude who played Danny is welsh. I don't think it makes a bit of difference. He's still uninteresting. Perhaps, it's just the character. Anyway, this film revels in the hackneyed notion that people who live in the country far from the craziness of the city are soooo wholesome and naive and just hoping for someone from the big city to drop in and turn their lives around!!!! Oh,yeah, right. I suppose this film is sweet, as in saccharine. Moreover, it's pretentious, and pathetic, in its didactic approach to being "charming" and striving for "quirkiness." Get Babe instead, a film that has a charming story and with an engaging cast.

"Danny Deckchair" tells of the adventures of a young concrete truck driver who decides to tie a bunch of helium filled balloons to his deck chair to soar aloft. His plan is to take shears with him to cut away one balloon at a time thereby making his descent. Instead, he leaves the shears behind and the balloons carry him to a new life and a new love. This sweet, cute, fun little flick from down-under is a fresh and creative new addition to the much over worked romcom genre. With lots of heart and unpredictable predictability, "Danny Deckchair" should be an enjoyable watch for those who don't mind a little schmaltz with their romantic comedy fare. (B)

With a good cast set you would think that the actors in "Danny Deckchair" could easily make something memorable and enjoyable. Problem is they go through a paint by number script, where plot twists are visible a mile away, and the characters aren't even given enough dialogue to give them any real personality or distinction. It's as if they were doomed from the start. An eccentric working class bloke with an ambitious wife, is set to go on a camping vacation when his wife cancels (no doubt from hints in the film that this isn't the first time) cause she wants to take an important business client on a sale. As a result Danny finds out and is distraught thinking his wife is cheating on him after he sees her being driven around by a wealthy sports reporter. Driven to desolation he starts making a hair brained scheme to fill a deckchair attached with balloons. why? well cause he's Danny. In the end he gets lifted off and essentialy dissapears. Days later he ends up crashing into a rural town where all the locals are all smiley faced, and happens no less to fall in the backyard of an attractive woman.. ho ho... gee I wonder what will happen next. At this point the audience is set to think on autopilot and for good measure just so the director thought we would be led astray there are complimentary scenes of people jumping in a fountain at a big dance, Danny winning the townsfolk over, and a jealous co-worker of the girl who of course starts finding out his identity. gee never would have guessed that. This is also not a mystery if you've seen the trailer. It's a shame cause the cast is great but they have litteraly nothing to work with, or have any memorable lines that make their characters stand out and be memorable from all the other cliche/loving find yourself films. Even though this film bills itself as a comedy from the trailer, there are hardly and funny moments in the film, or even any laugh out loud dialogue. Aside from the trip on how Danny got to this point, that's about the only thing memorable, and it's about 10 minutes of the film that makes it interesting, and another 85 minutes of waiting for something to happen. An unremarkable movie, can't recomend it. Rating 5.5 out of 10