Sydney Film Festival 2019 - Film Review - Palm Beach

Palm Beach 

Director and screenwriter, Rachel Ward commented on stage at the Sydney Film Festival, that the idea for this film came from holidaying overseas with friends where they were discussing  the topic of entering the last quarter of their lives and all the aches and pains which comes with the stage of life.

So this film is essentially about a group of grumpy middle-aged couples and others swanning around in Palm Beach  (a Northern beachside suburb of Sydney for the rich and famous and the rich and not-so-famous) at a three-day party, reflecting on their expanding waistlines and building an outside pizza oven in the garden in the one of the principal characters of the story. The ageing males in this film had once had a one-hit wonder band (called 'The Pacific Sideburns') hence their association with each other.

In essence this film could be better titled 'Friends and acquaintances' for essentially it's a group of the in-crowd of the Australian acting profession. The cast includes Bryan Brown (husband of Rachel Ward), the perennial honorary Australian, Sam Neill, Greta Scacchi, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Heather Mitchell and the non local, Richard E Grant. The film is described as a light-hearted, uplifting drama/comedy but really its a bit tedious and seems more representative of the social bubble that is Palm Beach. The  scripting is very so-so and fully predictable. Bryan Brown acts, well... as Bryan Brown. Sam Neill is present on-set. Perhaps the party was real and there was bit of acting thrown in for good measure ?