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Australia 1998
Directed by
Linda Heys
91 minutes
Rated PG

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2 stars

Kick

This routine teen movie. scripted by Stuart Beattie has Russell Page as a champion high school rugby player and all round top guy with a...shock, horror... secret desire to be a ballet dancer. All the usual obstacles and misunderstandings to be found in the macho environment of a Sydney private school are eventually overcome on the stage of the Sydney Opera House.

Being unoriginal is not an intrinsic obstacle to success but this film is a ham-fisted affair from go to whoa. "Go" being the opening sequence with George Spartels as the enthusiastically cheering Dad and "whoa" coming 91 minutes later with the inevitable resolving embrace between the once at-odds dance partners, Page and Rebecca Yates.

Aside from the unrelieved predictability of all that transpires, the fact that all the principals are way too old (Page was 30!!, Radha Mitchell, 25) makes one wonder what possessed the producers to go ahead with such an untenable combination. Mitchell has since gone on to an impressive Hollywood career whilst, sadly, Page, who was principal dancer for the Bangarra Dance theatre committed suicide in 2002. George Spartels continues to entertain toddlers on ABC TV's Play School.

 

 

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