CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

pc95 Yet another movie that gets points taken away from awful music video scenes. Music is in a movie to enhance the movie, NOT TAKE THE PLACE OF A MOVIE. This has become quite a poor trend unfortunately. Look Both Ways has some good introspective dialog and genuine humor and insightful intelligence built into it's script. It's characters are well put together. But no sooner do we finish a compelling and interesting scene, we (the audience) are rudely interrupted by soundtrack, clumsy and meaningless, blaring in as if trying to fill a void that isn't really there to begin with. Unfortunately this seems to be more of a norm with many contemporary movies. "Since we cant think of interesting ways to cut to another scene, lets just throw in a sappy, folksy, and unintelligent music video. As if images themselves don't convey enough. (spoilers) The cutaway or added animation was interesting but directors should give more thought to their soundtracks and especially how they're employed - better editing needed.

brimon28 I had the great fortune of viewing this film and seeing a stage performance of Chekovs "Three Sisters" in the same weekend. It was the second time I had seen Look Both Ways. Once is usually enough for me to see a film, but Look Both Ways is eminently re-viewable. There is something new every time. Just as we can look at Three Sisters over and over again, Look Both Ways has the 'everybody is related" thread, as has Chekov's great drama. So Chekov has to be staged; it is "formal" drama. LBW is naturalistic, and the actors perform to style. Both scripts are about death - death past, and death to come. The Doctor in TS says "It doesn't matter". In LBW, it does matter, but it draws people together. Did anyone else notice that the condolence card the train driver delivered to the widow was writer/director Sarah Watt's work? The conversation is recorded as a quote at the top of this site. I love this film.

fwomp Death is a touchy subject to broach regardless of the medium in which you choose to expose it. It's uncomfortable to even think about yet touches us all on many levels, and that is why LOOK BOTH WAYS succeeds.Building on death in thought-provoking, sad, and often hilarious terms, Look Both Ways binds a small Australian community together after the death of a man upon the local railroad tracks. Meryl (Justine Clarke, DANNY DECKCHAIR) witnesses the horrible event and summons the authorities. The local media shows up, including photojournalist Nick (William McInnes, IRRESISTIBLE) who's just been diagnosed with a rapidly spreading cancer. Also on the scene is Nick's newspaper partner Andy (Anthony Hayes, NED KELLY) and eventually the deceased's wife Julia (Daniella Farinacci, BROTHERS).Meryl sees the event as just another death, something that fill her thoughts and her paintings on a daily basis. Her vivid imagination surrounding death is illustrated (literally) via laughingly silly animated sequences that are sure to tickle your dark funny bone. Photojournalist Nick sees himself on the railroad tracks, having just received a medical death sentence of metastatic testicular cancer. Newspaper writer Andy battles to understand life and death while struggling to be a good father to his divorced children, and the discovery that his new girlfriend is pregnant with an unwanted child. Widow Julia tries to understand the seemingly meaninglessness of her husband's death as flowers flow into her home and she's forced to come to grips with such a sudden loss.Where Look Both Ways succeeds is in its delivery. Each person views death under their own unique umbrella, but are bound together by this one tragic event. Meryl and Nick become oddball lovers during a one night stand, while newsman Andy tries to sort through his chaotic and merciless lifestyle. Widow Julia and the engineer who was driving the train are two of the more interesting cases within the story, as they have no speaking parts until the very end, but are given ample screen time which speaks volumes on its own.The message of the flick is simple but not forced: look at death both ways. See it as a necessity but don't dwell on it. There is hope and fear within it, operating not at opposite ends of the spectrum, but as a gauge on how to live life without death looming ever present on one's mind.Meryl, the one who the film is mostly about, learns this lesson the hard way, coming to terms with her own fate, and that of Nick who's cancerous life is destined to plow into hers with the force of a padded sledgehammer.

youngadam-4 The film had some likable aspects. Perhaps too many for my taste. It felt as though the writer/director was desperately trying to get us to feel the inner conflict of ALL of its characters. Not once, a few times...but all of the time. This is the job of television, not cinema. The location of the train station was well chosen and I enjoyed Sascha Horler's performance as the pregnant friend. I felt as though Justine Clarke's performance was wan. Her reactions to things felt forced, as though the director were trying to vocalise the themes of the film through her protagonist's expressions. I also can't believe that a director can make the wonderful Daniela Farinacci into an unbelievable presence. I cannot understand the choice of pop music slapped over entire sequences. This is a lazy device, especially where the pop music comes from no place diagetic to the film and/or where the lyrics of the song feel embarrassingly earnest. That said, there is a breezy quality about the film that evokes the Australian heat and local attitude with originality. It does create an atmosphere of heat and sunshine. Especially with the usage of wonderful animation sequences that rescue the film from complete mediocrity, infusing it with passion and hand-crafted charm. I am curious why the dialogue feels so overworked. "Who knows if there's a god? Like some guy sitting there up in the sky telling us what to do" or whatever the line was. Perhaps one of the more embarrassing moments was the friend returning home from cricket with a bunch of flowers to declare to his wife "I'm giving up smoking." An anti-smoking commercial? A TAC ad with some tasteful animation? I had to leave the cinema at the 50 minute mark -- it was all too much.