Customer Reviews

Risk

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

 

 

I initially watched this to see Claudia Karvan in a further role after she impressed me in The Secret Life of Us. I found that this film has strong characters with all three leads including Bryan Brown and Tom Long being equally effective. The story is well paced with constant development of the plot and a good ending. The DVD main film sounds and looks good with a reasonable making of feature. The trailer is standard theatre fodder. A cast biography may have helped. The excellent characterisations make the normally dull insurance office world seem very plausible.Good on yer blue.

A cleverly written story about corruption, seduction, betrayel and deceipt, Bryan Brown yet again turns out another stellar performance in another great aussie movie, set around the insurance game in Sydney. Ben (Tom Long from Two hands and The Dish), is a naive and impressionable young man from the bush. Having just moved to Sydney, he takes up his first jop in insurance. He is taken under the wing by a senior adjustor Kreisky (played by Brown, from many great films including Two Hands and Dirty Deeds). Ben becomes a pawn in an experiment that Kreisky has devised to earn some cash under the table along with his 'beneficiary' Ranconi (Claudia Karvan). As the story unfolds, the plot becomes thicker and more intriguing, culminating in a clever, surprising conclusion.
A great cast, led brilliantly by Brown, this is top 5 of my favourite of all Aussie films. Included in the special features is a trailer for the film, with two bonus trailers and cast and director interviews.
Any fan of Brown's must add this to their collection.

This DVD took me for a ride, emotionally.

The three-way romantic interest between the main characters is good, and the story has some unexpected turns. About the time I thought that I understood what was happening, something different would develop.

The story was cleverly executed, IMO. It's definitely not a spy thriller, in terms of subterfuge / double-crossing etc, but it's also not totally straightforward.

There aren't any incredibly good special effects- nothing like that. Rather, just some quite believable performances, interesting characters, and an interesting situation.

The last quarter or so, plus the ending, were more fast-paced than the rest. The number of turns near the end left me feeling like I'd been through a bit of a wringer- you may find that especially true if you've begun to empathize with some of the characters.

Very enjoyable.