Product Details

• Actors: Sacha Horler, Joel Edgerton, Skye Wansey, Lynette Curran, Peter Fenton
• Directors: John Curran
• Producers: Praise
• Format: Import, PAL, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Siren Visual
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AM19R6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #557,584 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Australia released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Praise is a love story about a man and a woman, both of whom have low self-esteem, and another woman from the man's past. Obsessive Cynthia suffers from a skin disorder and an insatiable desire for men. She sees something special in Gordon, who is twenty-five, unemployed, a chain smoker and asthmatic. She invites him to a party where he is the only guest. After much alcohol, grass, Scrabble, and conversation, they make love. But just as Gordon is ready to lose himself in this new experience, his old love Rachel appears. His body now belongs to Cynthia, but Rachel still has his soul. In the meantime, Gordon's lungs are collapsing. In his first film, Australian director John J. Curran examines human frailties with insight. Praise was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999.
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Australian Film Institute, Berlin International Film Festival, British Independent Film Awards, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, Toronto International Film Festival, ...Praise

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wicked Fun!!, January 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Praise [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Frankly this movie should have been rated triple X. There is a ton of sex in this film and when there isn't sex, people are talking about it. But that's not what made the film interesting. The lead characters Gordon and Cynthia are lovers with the setting in an Australian squat. They're a mismatched couple to the T. Gordon is shy and has to be told what to do at every moment. He regrets this when he hooks up with Cynthia, a young waitress who has to have sex or she feels she's going to die. The two begin on a turbulent realionship because their feelings about intercourse couldn't be more different. Gordon doesn't enjoy sex that much. Cynthia loves it and has to have it every second. So after weeks of Gordon giving into her constant sexual requests, Cynthia turns up pregnant. They decide to have an abortion. Gordon is happy because this means he gets four weeks off. But the moment Cynthia is allowed to have sex again, she's on Gordon faster than a fly is on a wall. It's clear that Cynthia has some deep issues to deal with. She thinks sex is love. She feels Gordon only loves her when he's intimate with her. Gordon figures out that he doesn't really love Cynthia at all. She's physically draining and mentally dangerous to his health. Cynthia leaves Melbourne never to see Gordon again. And of course he misses her immediately after she leaves.

Great acting. Great realization. Realistic dialogue.
Word of warning: this film is not for anyone who isn't comfortable with people talking graphically about sex. This film takes dirty talk to another level and it can only be respected if you can take it. If you subtract all the sex, it's a very touching love story. I admit after the fifth sex scene I wanted the characters to surpass that but they never did. If you see the movie you'll understand how two lonely people use sex to control one another. A riveting film. Not for the kiddies.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars loving puts your heart at risk, November 1, 2001

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Praise (DVD)

Apart from featuring constant screen cigarette smoking, this Australian film directed by John Curran defies expectations. Set in a Brisbane boarding house it presents Peter Fenton as an asthmatic who begins a romance with eczema sufferer Sacha Horler. Curran's formal style lessens the grunginess of the locale, though at times he overdoes the soundtrack with aural effects, so we can concentrate on the phenonema of the relationship. What is remarkable about the treatment is that neither of the characters are shown to be losers, in spite of their physical challenges. Rather there is much emphasis on flesh, in particular Horler's physical insatiablity and the demand it makes on Fenton. In response to Horler's comment that she thinks herself "hideous", Curran cuts to a crowd's apparent look of disapproval which is later revealed to be their fear of being group photographed.
In spite of the suggestion that Horler is a monstrous child/woman, the actor invests her with a vulnerability that is very appealing. And Fenton's tenderness is also pleasing.
The film suffers without Horler, and Curran doesn't know how to end, which may be the fault of the source novel by Andrew McGahan. Depicting residents of a boarding house as men without dreams or levity is perhaps too easy, but at least we get to see a physical transformation. Curran repeats one set-up from a longer shot, which predetermines the ending, and provides an amusing if inexplicable parallel between the boarding house and a hospital ward after hours.

1 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars (...), March 4, 2006

By 

Vera (Poland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Praise (DVD)

This film, together with "Alexandra's Project", has got to be the lamest excuse for promoting porn, under the banner of so-called art, that I have ever seen. This film has absolutely no substance, and the sex scenes are as erotic as a dog humping a pillow.
This film has brought shame rather than praise to the Australian Film Industry.