Mental

I don't always get Australian humor, so there are lo-o-o-o-o-ong stretches of this that left my scratching my head. And there some wickedly hilarious moments. Those, coupled with Anthony LaPaglia's awful rendition of "Edelweiss" at the end, make this, all in all, worth sitting through. And how is it that Liev Schreiber just gets hotter as the years go by?

has a kind of fish-eye visual/rhythmic exuberance, but hasn't the culty fervour and charm of Muriel's Wedding.

A wild and chaotic movie that gets away with bookending tragedy with slapstick/absurdist comedy by having it all ring true. Toni Collette is a shapeshifter here, alternately Brad-Pitt-in-Fight-Club-esque-life-resuscitator-via-random-acts-of-violent-mania and cynical overcompensating trauma victim.

If you can get through the long length of the movie and the supremely thick Australian accents this is pretty fun. Toni Collette is pretty darn animated throughout the story. The daughters all cracked me up with some of them getting their hair stolen for doll-making, one that sees aliens from Lost in Space and many more. Liev Schreiber had a small but fun role as the Shark museum curator. It was nice seeing him let loose a little bit with a comedy. A good cast, just wish it was shorter.

Serious tonal issues - it was as schizophrenic as its characters, which sounds like it should work but it simply doesn't - and some misjudged "comedy" mar a reasonable premise and some fantastic performances. Overlong and underfunny, but saved by some genuinely funny moments and a uniformly superb cast.