The Custodian

Writer-director John Dingwall's film begins impressively and very much in the style of the American cop-on-the-edge thriller with Anthony LaPaglia in fine form as a detective in emotional crisis after his marriage break-up. Dingwall pairs him up with Hugo Weaving in an early instance of one of his bread-and-butter roles, as a corrupt cop and everything is set for a ruthless battle between good and evil.

Then things start to unravel. Barry Otto twitches his way to the fore as an ineffectual Internal Affairs investigator and the usual Australian propensity for mundane realism starts to slow things down. Then Kelly Dingwall, whom we can assume is a relative of the director, is introduced as a caring journalist to whom LaPaglia is feeding information and whole shebang starts to slip away in some very badly staged scenes.

Some careful editing might have prevented some of the problems for the film is overlong however the ending makes no apparent sense and sadly, one is left with very little after such a promising start.

FYI: Naomi Watts appears in a small role as the journalist's girlfriend.

 

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