Customer Reviews

Opal Dream

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Synopis: Little nine year old Kellyanne (Sapphire Boyce) lives with her parents and older brother in rural Australia. Her Father (Vince Colosimo) is a dreamer who hopes to secure his families future by discovering a cache of opals under the harsh desert climate. As he labors away without reward Kellyanne's Mother (Jacqueline McKenzie) brings in the families only income working as a clerk in a local grocery store. Her big brother Ashmol (Christian Byers) is a well adjusted outgoing child. Kellyanne is quite different. She is a sweet but extremely introverted child who sends all her time communicating with two imaginary friends named Pobby and Dingan.

This seemingly harmless fantasy is tolerated by the family to such an extent that they even set two additional plates at the table for the invisible playmates. However when Pobby and Dingan go missing the little girl becomes mysterious ill and nobody knows what to do to restore her to health. That is nobody except her brother Ashmol who decides to organize a search for the lost duo. His biggest problem now is to figure out how do you find something that's invisible?

`Opal Dream' ('06) is a endearing story in the tradition of `E.T.' and `Indian in the Cupboard' that can be equally enjoyed by young and old alike. The plot might be a little slow and challenging for some younger children but the implications of this mythic tale from Down-Under are exquisitely subtle and absolutely fascinating. Surely this bittersweet tale of transition from childhood to adolescence will generate much thought in viewers of all ages. What is real and what is imaginary? Do any of us really know for sure?

This is a sweet family film. We bought this the other day, and I sat down and watched it by myself before showing it to my children. Because it was a PG rating, I wanted to see if it was the family film it claimed to be. There were only two curse words that I could remember in it, and I let my children watch it that afternoon. It's about a father struggling to survive in Australia with a wife and two children. They are in the lower poverty level of society, and the father owns a opal mine that's gone dry. He can't find any opals, and between his hard work there, he comes home to his daughter Kellyanne, who has two imaginary friends she plays with constantly. If you look on the photo of the DVD you will see her holding their imaginary hands, but look in the dirt on the road, and you will see their shadows. Kellyanne loves these two friends of hers to the point where she takes them to school with her, goes to the market with them, and plays with them at home too. Her mother even sets plates out for them at their family meal time. Needless to say, with the frustration of the father's opal mine, and Kellyanne's imaginary friends, he decides to take them to work with him, in hopes that Kellyanne would forget about them and play like a normal kid when invited to a BBQ. As Kellyanne's two friends are "lost" at the mines, the father helps look for them in the dark on the night that he lost them. He gets arrested, as other people running their own mines think he's trying to trespass on their mines. This movie is sweet, but uses a lot of Australian slang words, that I didn't know what they meant. The word "dag" was used by Kellyanne's brother, and I looked it up on a website, which said it meant "Bits of manure that stick on a sheep's bottom, also used when referring to one as a 'loser'." They used also another word, "ratter" which wasn't on the website of Australian slang words, so I believe it either means "thief", or "trespasser", as they called the father this when he entered an opal mine without permission of the owner. They called him a ratter throughout the whole movie. Anyway, I won't explain the ending so I won't spoil the outcome of the movie. My kids loved this movie and asked again to watch it last night. It's a nice movie about a family sticking together no matter what other people think about them. Good entertainment for the whole family.

This movie was not what I was expecting it to be. I was expecting a much lighter movie with a lot of sequences where you see the little girl's make believe world. The closest you get to seeing her imaginary friends is a picture she draws of them.
That being said, it was still a pretty good movie. I would say the movie focuses more on her older brother than anything else and the processes of him (and eventually, the town) to see this girl's imaginary world. By the end I was wishing I had a brother like hers.
This is a pretty safe movie for family viewing (although some spots I would consider too dark for small children to watch).

The LA Times Reviews of this movie described it as "an exceptional family film!" It's more than that ... its an exceptional film, period.

The authors of this movie took something from nothing, an idea about imaginary friends, and wove it into a rich tale that tugs on your emotions and evokes a parabole about coming of age and of moving on from mental illness.

I loved this movie, the hardships of her family, the misunderstanding and judgement of others has such a negative impact. This little girl's world was real to her and honoring that is so heart warming.

I rented this movie because my mom and I are going to Australia and I have looked for movies related to the trip. This was much more than an intro to a bit of Australian culture. The child actors are especially good. You don't even think about them being actors because they just seem like kids being kids.

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Well, here's the first thing: Australia does not have as good actors as the US. They all seem bored and dried out from the desert that they live in. The scenery does not make me feel good nor does it look realistic. I thought Australia would be just a little more lush, maybe as much as the African Savannah, but not a complete desert, that's the Sahara.

But there are good things, the script was obviously done by a professional, but I can tell the director and editor didn't do such a great job translating the script into visuals. So you won't be completely disappointed. Secondly, it plays a realistic tone as for casting. I think that may make it a little dry, but I believe that they did try to make things look realistic. If it didn't occur to you yet, all girls AND boys have imaginary friends. Some are in different forms, but this is because the child does not want to go to the outside world. Maybe we could see this in Alice In Wonderland (1951.)

Some other things are why an Opal? I understand it may have been in the book, but you must understand such a change would not effect, scratch that, make it better. An Opal does have pretty stripes, but other gems are fully colored in vibrant colors. Even if it's transparent-blue, it would be better than just a regular stone with some stripes. That's like if you make a sand castle and just paint a few dabs on it, it only makes it more attraction generating and not positive reaction generating. And the wooden leg they find is way to small, and the lollipop wrappers are way to big.

The movie is all just very dry, but it proves a good message. Though, I wish someone who actually had talent would make a movie involving a girls imaginary friends. But, at least these guys tried, where as other *cough*HOLLYWOOD!!!*cough* does seem to think that if they touch on anything that hasn't already been touched they'll get sued by angry parents. Guess what Jake? Maybe old subjects are also touchy, and you should just focus on making a good movie then making a Good Dang PROFIT!!!!

So there ya go, I kinda rushed and picked at little things, but there ya go.

Oh, the rating. Well, if there were more imaginary friends movies out there I'd give it a 2/5, but since it's an entire half of what I know of and the whole of what I've seen I'll say 3.5/5.

I, Da Ca$hman signing off.