"Drink your beer and shut up" is the essence of male culture in Australia. "Mateship" is the term for it. Rex, a 70 year old cab driver from Broken Hill in New South Wales, finds – as he must have already felt for a long time - that mateship is a double edged sword. He is diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and can't bring himself to tell his friends or the woman he secretly loves. "There's no one else," he tells his doctor. Instead he drives his cab 2,000 plus miles across the Australian outback to Darwin where there is a newly opened and experimental euthanasia clinic. "Why," asks the woman who might have been his wife "did you not tell me?!" "You never asked," answers Rex, matter-of-factly. Rex has never seen the sea, among other things, and his eyes are opened to new scenery and people. His nearness to death is an opportunity to reassess his life and, like Odysseus, for adventure.
While much of the film is drama and serious in nature, it is also light-hearted. A mechanic tells Rex to keep his fluids up while driving in the desert, and Rex promptly goes into the bar for beer. One theme is the plight of Australia's aborigines. Whites took away much of their culture and stories, and as a result, who they are. The acting is really wonderful, especially the lead who is a veteran of Australian films and television and well-loved for such roles for his entire life. I love the ornate and wonderful arts and crafts homes as well as the scenery of Australia. The film is loosely based on a true story. The only real drawbacks are that it is somewhat predictable and short. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015.
