The Hard Word, 2003 - DVD

SPOILERS

It's too bad this film didn't do better in the theaters. At least in the States. This film has a good combination of your standard American crime film along with Roberts taking the backdrop of Australia and writing a number of great characters to give us something unique and original.

I was very impressed with the writing, but I was more impressed with the character development. The relationship between the three brothers, played by Pearce, Edgerton and Richardson, was perfect. Roberts gave us some clever development with these boys, most specifically their backwards talking. A very clever way to establish their relationship.

Another character I found to be very interesting, though a little cliched when it came to the tough man act, was Tarzan. Very clever. I wish that Roberts would have expanded on his character a little bit... seeing as he saw all numbers and letters reversed, it would have been intersting to see him be able to understand the brothers when they talked backwards.

The only actor, or in this case actress, that I did not appreciate was Rachel Griffiths, most notably known for her roll in Six Feet Under, along with The Rookie. Her accent was terrible, and her character was written quite strange, with a up and down loyalty that wasn't very believable. And, seeing as how she was born in Australia... well, I guess she worked very hard to get rid of the accent, and had a harder time getting it back.

Pearce is always great. I've yet to come across any of his work where I didn't enjoy his acting. I specifically loved him in L.A. Confidential. I thought he was brilliant as Edmond Exley and I hope that they bring him back if they ever decide to shoot the fourth part of James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet, White Jazz. He would be great. He was also very good in Memento and, of course, one of his first features, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

The two brothers, Joel Edgerton and Damien Richardson were also great. The three men had great chemistry together, and I found myself hoping that none of them died by the end of the film. You get to really like these three brothers, and their love and respect for one another.

Scott Roberts has been a writer for film since his 1986 Riders of the Storm. He went on to write K2 in 1992 and then didn't do a thing for 10 years. I'm not sure how long it took him to write The Hard Word, but he got it right. The writing is fantastic, the direction has a great style... you can see some of the American influences in the picture, but they don't take away, as I said, from the original backdrop and the lifestyles of Australia. Those add an original tone to the entire film.

I think, in the near future, we're going to see some great things out of cinematographer Brian J. Breheny. This film is shot beautifully. There are some incredible scenes that are lit perfectly, shot perfectly... I was very surprised to see this coming from someone who's shot nothing too mainstream, along with nothing that's been too successful in the States. I'm sure we're going to see him getting more and more high profile work as time goes by.

Ok... I don't understand the title. I don't get it. I'm not sure what the hard word is. We're given the rule, over and over, that 'no one gets hurt' on the jobs that the brothers do. Ok... but what exactly is the 'hard word'?

I also found that a number of the relationships in the film went nowhere... they were unresolved. That was a little bit of a letdown... especially when Carol (Griffiths) works her way back from cheating on her husband (Pearce), to killing the man she was cheating with (Taylor), just to get back with her husband. The other two brothers, who meet women along the way... well, we're left with a "What happened to them?" That was too bad, as well.

All in all, this is a pretty solid film. Again, some things that should have been rectified, things that wouldn't have been a problem sitting through at the conclusion of the film... good acting, good story, good characters... worth renting.