Film review: Aussie movie Here I Am

DESPITE the best of intentions, the blandest of outcomes is all that can be achieved by Here I Am.

hit here i am

DESPITE the best of intentions, the blandest of outcomes is all that can be achieved by Here I Am.

This lead-footed plod of a post-prison drama follows the plight of Karen (Shai Pittman), a twentysomething indigenous woman just out of jail.

While piecing her life back together in a Port Adelaide women's shelter, Karen gradually realises the jigsaw will not be complete until she is reunited with her infant daughter Rosie. However, Rosie is now in the custody of Karen's no-nonsense mother Lois (well-known academic and activist Marcia Langton), who finds it hard to accept her daughter could be changing her ways.

Though the highly evocative camerawork of Samson & Delilah filmmaker Warwick Thornton works powerfully in Here I Am, the film has precious little else going for it.

An ungainly screenplay repeatedly exposes the inexperience of the production's largely amateur cast.

Meanwhile, the tedious direction of Beck Cole mistakenly assumes mood matters more than character development.

Word has it this moderate affair will be screening on the ABC later in the year. You're not missing much by waiting to catch Here I Am as a small-screen freebie.

Here I Am (M)
Director: Beck Cole (feature debut)
Starring: Shai Pittman, Marcia Langton, Vanessa Worrall, Pauline Whyman.
Star rating: * *