Ten Empty (2008)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Anthony Hayes

Writers:

Brendan Cowell (written by)
Anthony Hayes (written by)

Release Date:

2008 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Everything changes... except family.

Plot:

A disillusioned son's trip home is complicated when ten years of family secrets explode over one weekend. |

Plot Keywords:

Trip | Ten Years | Weekend | Secret | Home

Cast

Daniel Frederiksen	...	Elliot
Geoff Morrell	...	Ross
Lucy Bell	...	Diane
Tom Budge	...	Brett
Brendan Cowell	...	Shane Hackett
Blazey Best	...	Bernadette
Jack Thompson	...	Bobby Thompson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kaliopi Eleni	...	Dr. Lockyer
Andy McPhee	...	Minister
Adam Morgan	...	Noel

Also Known As:

10 Empty (International: English title) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

Australia:95 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Australia:MA (2008)

Company:

Dragonfly Pictures

Trivia:

The meaning of the title "Ten Empty" refers to the number of canvasses the mother is given to paint as part of her psychological cognitive therapy. When given to her, they are ten empty canvasses.

Dreary, cliché-riddled old chestnut about the dysfunctional family in denial about a past tragedy

'It's not what you do it's the way that you do it'. Hmm. If you're going to make a film about a dysfunctional family who are in denial about a past tragedy, and who bring it all up over a gut- spilling weekend, do something interesting with it. As usual it's set in an unspeakably gloomy house in a dreary, desolate suburb, but it might as well be performed on an empty stage. It would certainly have been cheaper. The father is your usual beer drinking, car-obsessed, loud- mouthed bully, written, like most of the script with equal proportions of cliché and pretension, and played with Geoff Morell's usual, self-conscious obviousness. The rest of the cast come off slightly better with their archetypes: the tense, passive sister; the successful brother from the city, who runs away from conflict; and, of course, the suicidally loopy brother in the upstairs room, who never speaks. To be fair there are some moments of quiet, touching tenderness, usually when no-one is speaking. But when the olde moodily lit shot of the kitchen tap dripping popped on to the screen, it seemed to sum the whole thing up: we've seen it all before, done better.