HAPPENED across a Q&A session in a wine bar in Leederville before going to see a movie called Frank and Frank.
Present were the cast and crew, director /writer, Adam Morris and producer Ian Hale.
I missed most of the Q&A but did get to chat to Trevor Jamieson and Myles Pollard, the two Franks in the locally-filmed, low budget movie set around Albany and Mt Barker.
Now I was interested in seeing this film of which I previously knew nothing about as I had lived in Albany and loved the landscape.
Frank 1 (Pollard) is a motivational speaker who has been given the boot by his wife, played by newcomer Rebecca Leafe.
Frank goes through the highs and lows as he questions what went wrong, pondering his future and past in a large, lonely house in Albany built by Frank 2.
• Myles Pollard and Trevor Jamieson; the two Franks.
At the bottom of his property, he meets Frank 2 (Jamieson), who’s full of wisdom, simplicity and humour.
He lives in a caravan and becomes his namesake’s philosophical counterpart.
Frank and Frank become buddies dissecting life and their foibles or as the title suggests, ruminations on the mystery from soup to nuts.
This is a feelgood movie where the men’s friendship strengthens as one Frank’s life is falling apart and the other’s is free flowing, relaxed and simple.
The juxtaposition of both situations sees Frank 1 evolving into the relaxed life offered by the beauty of his surroundings.
There is an element of suspense as Frank 1 asks if Frank 2 could build something in Frank 2’s workshop, which produces a funny moment when the crafted object is exposed.
As for the painting lesson, I wish we could have seen the final product. That would have been funny.
People come into your life when you need them but you don’t always know or realise you can learn from them.
See this movie if you can as it was part of the Perth Revelation International Film Festival and the audience responded was really strong; not bad for an indi film shot on a $70,000 budget.
There’s a showing at The Backlot on Sunday August 6, before it gets it big WA launch through Luna Leederville and Fremantle on August 17.
by PAULA HOLLAND
Frank and Frank or (The Valley and the Walrus: Ruminations on the Mystery from Soup to Nuts)
3.9 /5 chickens