The Waiting City (2009)

A mystic-infused love story that follows a young couple's journey to India to collect their adopted baby.

Director:

Claire McCarthy

Writer:

Claire McCarthy

Stars:

Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton, Samrat Chakrabarti

4 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Radha Mitchell	...	Fiona Simmons
Joel Edgerton	...	Ben Simmons
Samrat Chakrabarti	...	Krishna
Isabel Lucas	...	Scarlett
Tillotama Shome	...	Sister Tessila
Barun Chanda	...	Doctor Khan
Dana Roy	...	Sister Agnes
Tamal Ray Chowdhury	...	Uncle
Tanushree Shankar	...	Didi Chatterjee
Palomi Ghosh	...	Urmi (as Paulomi Ghosh)
Kalyan Chatterjee	...	Pharmacist
Kamalendu Banerjee	...	Airport Official (as Kamalendu Danerjee)
Jeremy Sims	...	Carlisle
Shankar Haldar	...	Feroz
Soumitra Saha	...	Blind Man

Storyline

An outwardly happy Australian couple journey to Calcutta to collect their adopted baby, but on arrival find that the arrangements have yet to be finalized. Soon, the intoxicating mystic power of the Indian city pulls them in separate and unexpected directions, and the vulnerability of their marriage begins to reveal itself.

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Plot Keywords:

hare krishna | spirituality | title directed by female | love | f rated | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for brief sexuality and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 July 2010 (Australia)

Filming Locations:

Barrackpore, West Bengal, India

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

See Pictures,Sol Films,Speaking Tree Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 108 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Rashda: [on the phone] Fiona? Fiona...
Fiona Simmons: Rashda?
Rashda: Can you hear me?
Fiona Simmons: Yeah.
Rashda: Do you have a minute?
Fiona Simmons: I have the documents with me.
Rashda: I hope you know what you're doing.
Fiona Simmons: Absolutely. I'm fine taking them with me.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Summer Special 2010/11 (2010)

User Reviews

A good try from up an coming director.

I saw this movie last night in Sydney as part of the Sydney Film Festival. I didn't know what I was seeing or anything about the movie. Overall unfortunately I have to say that while the best intentions were there the film just didn't work.

The main problem for me was that I don't think the director really knew what kind of statement she was trying to make with the film. I was waiting for the presentation of what the film was trying to say but it never came. This is surprising considering the subject matter.

The director stated at the end of the film in the Q+A that she wasn't making the film primarily about the adoption of children from other countries. But this aspect of the story was way more compelling than watching two boring main characters have lukewarm interaction. I feel the Director should have taken a stronger stance with how she felt about the subject matter she was trying to display. And my God if you are shooting a film in India just get right in there and soak it into the frames !

The beginning of the film was not helped by the music score which alluded to the film almost being presented as a comedy, especially with the choice of music score. That path soon faded away into discombobulation. While a few moments were interesting to watch it just didn't make it in the end.

I thought the Joel Edgerton character was not realized well enough. Weather this is through the fault of the director or Joels direction he took the character in. Because the 2 main characters are on the screen so much of the time I really wanted to see more chemistry between them but it just wasn't there.

Also the film being shot with the RED digital camera system I would have expected a bit more depth and vitality to the shot choices.

Having said all of this the creators of the film were very charming during the Q+A and I think Claire will go onto make some better material. Keep going guys !