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Crackerjack - Australia's Favourite Lawn Bowls Flick

Crackerjack - in cinemas now!

Below the surface of Lawn Bowls glitz is a movie of warmth and charm...

By Ann Pulbrook - 28th November 2002 - Back to News

Mick Molloy gets below the surface of Lawn Bowls glitz to turn out a movie of warmth and charm, and a genuine funny spirit (as the ashes of one character blow toward the club bar). This movie takes Jack Simpson out of his conniving parking arrangement, to confront his enablers - the ladies and gentlemen of Cityside Bowling Club, who know him only as a name in their Membership Book, for the last several years. Jack has been using his Membership to run a parking scam, but is now being called upon to play a match on Saturday, or forfeit his right to parking.

Out of the call centre and into the Bowling Club, Jack "befriends" the ladies and gentlemen of Cityside, meets spunky Bowls journalist (Judith Lucy) and adopts a Dad in Stan (Bill Hunter) -a dedicated follower of the great Bowls icon Sir Francis Drake. As Jack bickers, and conducts himself irreverently, flouting club rules (there is a serious breech of conduct over the Wheel of Cheese incident) the Team recoil to find they need this Cracker again!

Jack’s room-mate (Samuel Johnson) is attracted to the sport’s social and club atmosphere, and intrigues to ingratiate himself as indispensable to the ladies, and the Club Committee, learning the rules and Constitutional Rights of the game, which nobody else seems to know, except with the possibility of the Bowls State Governor. Jack battles wits on and off Ground, winning over local journalist love interest (Lucy) who, seemingly has been relegated to cover the matches as a result of harassment from a high standing colleague.

There also emerges the malevolent influence of corrupt businessman Bernie Fowler (John Clarke), the local Gaming licence holder who’s dark intentions and underhand behaviour threaten to bring the Club to it’s knees (and to rise up again as a pokies venue).

This is a funny movie, giving a humorus take on the cross-generational hand-over of a cult sport, steeped in tradition, which is out of the experience of a certain percentage of the movie’s audience. It communicates to the mainstream: a cultural life of bowls and cake, contrasting with the lounge-life of Jack and friend, and the menacing threat of corporate greed inbedded in Bernie Fowler if the Club does not succeed in it’s transition of noble sport in the profit-based global entertainment era.

This is an entertaining movie, and very easy to watch, with hope for the Protagonist to enrich the sport of Sir Francis Drake, and comically invoke the audience to appreciate it’s nuance.

It’s great entertainment, with development of the relationship of the old and the new, an exchange of oafish condescension, and the recognition and understanding of common ground, which Molloy’s humour transcends the barriers of each Parties reluctance. The discarding of the profiteer (in himself) and of the corrupt businessman Bernie Fowler, allows for generational confusion (stubbornness), sporting survival in heightened Corporate times, and the blissful recognition of a good time, to work out of the movie’s themes.

All the characters have or develop a sense of orientation and humour, whether they are old, new, cynical or enthusiastic. These characters make it worthwhile to keep this Club and this sport going, and encourage the retainment of incorporating tradition. The Club’s 1970’s Bar prices and the over-used Swear Jar tend to add an element of Team unification to their spirit of their game.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com