Love Serenade

(Dir. Shirley Barrett) (1996)

There is simply something fundamentally wrong with Dimity and Vicki-Ann, lonely-heart sisters in Sunray, Queensland, back of nowhere.  Why the wheelchair?  Why the obsession with lounge lizard Ken Sherry?  Why are they so obviously mad as hatters?  Why does Sherry eat no fish yet has a giant marlin mounted on the wall?  Why all the casseroles left on his doorstep? Why did he leave big time radio and TV in Brisbane?  Why does he quote “Desiderata” (with due respect to Max Ehrmann, the most pretentious farrago ever twaddled)? Are there killer fish or black holes in the river?  And why has Chinese restauranteur Albert come to embrace nudism?

These and many other questions are not properly answered in the best Australian comedy film ever.  All comedy is black (as the saying goes) but for it to work somehow, you need actors to follow their mad, daring instincts and a director to give them the lead.  Miranda Otto (Dimity), Rebecca Frith (Vicki-Ann), George Shevtsov (Ken Sherry) and John Alansu (Albert) are perfect, as is this film.  It ‘caught us on the hop.’