Swimming Upstream

Synopsis: In 1950s working-class Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill, the Fingleton kids use the local swimming pool at the end of their street as resort and retreat from their father (Geoffrey Rush) a moody wharf-worker who with his distorted ideas of manliness plays his boys against each other. His wife, Dora (Judy Davis), sticks by him despite his erraticism. One day he discover that two of his boys are excellent swimmers and, with memories of his own missed opportunities, he becomes obsessed by the idea of having a champion in the family.

Is Swimming Upstream an Australian film? Using the criterion of "significant Australian content", then, yes, although Australian-born director/writer/actor Russell Mulcahy who is probably best known for his 1984 Down-under pork-horror movie, Razorback, has made a reasonable jobbing career in the US as an all-rounder.

Swimming Upstream is an anomalous project. The production values are very American (with a $10 million budget, it was made under the banner of Crusader Entertainment which I assume is an American outfit but acknowledgement is also given in the credits to the Pacific Film and Television Commission) but it carefully reproduces its Australian setting. The action largely takes place in the 1950s but with its split screens, pumping Vangelis-style music (by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek who were responsible for the soundtrack to Mark Romanek's One Hour Photo) and a-chronological dialogue (I'm sure 50s Dads didn't refer to their sons as "guys") it is given a contemporary gloss. Probably more crucially there is an imbalance between the typical feel-good aspect of the sports genre (compare it in this respect for instance to The Coolangatta Gold to which it bears many resemblances) and the kick-in-the-guts realism of the dysfunctional family genre (Paul Goldman's Australian Rules handled this much better, albeit the sports aspect was not so important to its story). This dissonance means that it is the sort of film some will dismiss, others find intriguing.

Based on a true story and scripted by Anthony Fingleton from his autobiographical novel of the same title, it tells the story of his troubled life as the second oldest of five children growing up in 1950s Brisbane. Told from Tony's perspective, it was a gruelling experience for all concerned. Both Rush and Davis, clearly present for their star-value, and whilst giving strong performances, are mis-cast - neither are particularly credible as working-class characters. There is one scene in a pub when Davis puts on an Ocker accent but this is largely forgotten about elsewhere and Rush with his characteristically petulant hauteur, isn't a wharfie's singlet. Deborah Kennedy, as Dora's supportive friend, and Jesse Spencer,Tim Draxl and David Hoflin as the brothers competing for the father's affections, in their ordinariness are much more convincing in their parts.

Not only Mulcahy's kinetic style of direction (which has some impressive moments, particularly an 'out of body'-style scene and a full-on fight in the kitchen in the latter part of the film) but the perfectly-constructed 1950's settings, reminiscent of pleasant entertainment like Driving Miss Daisy, sit uneasily with the realistic aspects of the film, Harold's emotional disfigurement, the family troubles, the aggressively male 1950s pub culture and industrial unrest on the Brisbane wharves tend to get lost as the film swings from grit to gloss and back again. That the film also covers a lot of territory (some 15 years) also makes it difficult to engage in any significant way with the meatier issues. Nothwithstanding this is a commendable effort and if you've got watch a sports film and your taste isn't completely straightforward, I'd say this would be it.

 

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