Trapped in the great outdoors

by LES EVERETT

MY favourite Australian film is Wake In Fright. There's something of that claustrophobic, sweaty atmosphere in the new Bryan Brown project Cactus.
D Lyons

David Lyons in Cactus.

Written and directed by Jasmine Yuen Carrucan, Cactus is a road movie of sorts. John Kelly (Travis McMahon) has a delivery to make but makes a couple of early errors. 1. He's driving a Ford Fairmont in an area where some believe God drives a Holden. 2. He makes contact with copper Rosco (Bryan Brown) who is a law unto himself - really.

Later John makes an even bigger error involving truck driver Thommo (Shane Jacobson) but I don't want to give too much away. Except that David Lyons plays Eli Jones...the hostage...whoops.

Cactus is an engaging film and the performances are uniformly strong.

22 April 2008

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