Spotswood
(1991)
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Wallace is an efficiency expert, managing the high profile downsizing of a major auto parts factory. But when he is hired to evaluate a small moccasin factory which seems from another era, Wallace has to reconsider the rapid modernisation he advocates, as he is confronted by the human faces such plans hurt. Summer City Drama set in the 1950's, in which four young men take off for a weekend of sun, sand, surf and anything else that takes their fancy. An Australian production. |
Made with cash from the Australian Film Finance Council, Mark Joffe's appealing feature is similar to an Aussie Ealing comedy. At his most hesitant and human, Anthony Hopkins stars in a role that would have been ideal for Peter Sellers as a time-and-motion man whose dealings with the workers in a suburban moccasin factory cause him to re-evaluate a life dictated by emotional sterility and ruthless efficiency. The satire is gentle, the comedy often delightfully offbeat and the character traits neatly observed. Beside the excellent Hopkins, there is another promising performance from Toni Collette, now better known as the dazzling star of Muriel's Wedding.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Pleasant comedy in the Ealing tradition of the little man against uncaring bureaucracy.