Neighbours it ain't.
This excellent Australian family crime saga won 10 awards at the Australian Film Institute awards and was nominated for 18, which got it some Hollywood attention and resulted in Jacki Weaver being nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at this years Oscars. The critical acclaim is thoroughly deserved.
Animal Kingdom is a rarity for me in that I hardly knew anything about it before I went to see it (I have the tendency to read too much about films before going to watch them). I also don't watch a lot of Australian cinema. When I think about it all I can conjure up in my mind, asides from the brilliant Chopper, are dreadful Baz Luhrmann films . So it came as a nice surprise to find that Animal Kingdom is a confident, gripping and haunting character study of a ruthless family constantly on the brink of collapse that occasionally reaches levels of operatic intensity. To learn that it is director David Michôd's debut feature film makes it almost miraculous. It comes across as a film made by a veteran pro.
The drama centres around the despicable Cody family in Melbourne. The matriarch of the family is the emotionless, hatchet-faced, and frankly terrifying, 'Smurf' (Weaver). She has four sons who live with her - 'Baz', Craig, Darren and 'Pope'. These brothers are all wanted criminals (something which mama Smurf seems very proud of). Into their lives enters moody teenager 'J', whose mother has just died from a heroin overdose (in an extraordinary opening scene). He enters a storm from which he is unable to escape. There is a reason why his mother never really introduced him to her side of the family and that reason also explains the film's title.
We join this family at the end of their criminal heyday so we don't really see them commit that many crimes. It's too dangerous for them now. Instead we briefly hear about past bank robberies every now and then and the constant police surveillance is enough to show us how much wrong they have done. At this point in time, as J's voiceover points out, they are all scared. Fear and foreboding are definitely the underlying themes of the whole piece. One minor slip could send them all to jail. It doesn't help then that when Baz is murdered by the police, Pope takes the opportunity to get some revenge. This is when things start to spiral out of control.
Pope is completely psychotic. He's like a quieter version of Ben Kingsley's character in Sexy Beast but just as deadly. He is brilliantly played by Ben Mendelsohn, who won Best Actor at the AFI awards. He may not be a scary looking fella but whenever he's on screen you get the sense that anything, most likely something horrific, could happen. Whenever he's on screen with J's girlfriend Nicky, the tension is unbearable. Newcomer James Frecheville, playing J, is the film's heart and soul, and it is his heart and soul that all the other characters are after. His family obviously want him to be like them at the same time as investigating police officer Leckie, brilliantly played by the ever reliable Guy Pearce (looking remarkably like Gary Oldman in The Dark Knight), wants him to help put his family in jail. In this world though, everyone is corrupt - his family, the cops, the lawyers; they all want J's blood. Frecheville has a tough role playing a young, conflicted character. If there's one downfall in this film it's that sometimes he doesn't seem to be able to meet the demands of the character. On the other hand, his blank expressions result in you never knowing who he is going to side with until the very (satisfying) ending.
All of these male actors though are well and truly trumped by Weaver's performance as Smurf. From the moment she enters the picture she is frightening and untrustworthy. She likes to talk about how much she loves her sons and consistently kisses them on the lips in a disturbing manner. Yet you never get the feeling that she gives a damn about any of them, or anyone else in the world, apart from herself. Even when she cries over one of her son's deaths, it just isn't genuine. By the end of the film you will be convinced that she is the devil incarnate. It is a star-making performance.
Although Michôd takes his cues from Scorsese et al, Animal Kingdom never feels like a homage to Hollywood gangster films. And those expecting Goodfellas levels of action and gun violence may be disappointed (it reminded me more of The Godfather anyway). Most of the action takes place in an ordinary house with an extraordinary family. Staple gangster locations like banks, police stations, nightclubs; they don't really feature. The drama is in the home.
A sublime debut then that is well written and contains some magnetic performances. And it even features some shrimps on a barbie.
4 / 5
