Broken Hill ~ DVD

In the tradition of Save The Last Dance, Billy Elliott and August Rush comes the Australian-US coming-of-age musical drama Broken Hill. Tommy (Luke Arnold, Winners & Losers) was born and raised on a rocky, drought-ridden sheep station in the middle of the Australian Outback. He works at the station and does all he can to appease his demanding father George (Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People) but in his heart wants to be a great musician. That all changes when Tommy meets his new classmate Kat (Alexa Vega, Spy Kids), a bold and brash beauty, who at first doesn’t notice him at all. As Tommy tries desperately to get her attention his antics cause him to fall into hot water with the local police. He luckily escapes jail and chooses to do community service at the nearby prison to stay out of trouble. Soon the stakes for Tommy are raised when his music teacher and mentor lands him an audition for the elite music conservatorium. Against all odds, Tommy gains the affections of Kat, finds a way to reconcile with his father and conducts the concert of his life. NTSC FORMAT. Awards Australian Cinematographers Society 2009 – Won Gold Award Features – Cinema Fort Collins TriMedia Festival 2009 – Won Audience Award Feature Film Broken Hill Review "Despite the best efforts of the marketers to make you think this was a Hallmark love story, Broken Hill is a lot more Billy Elliot than Love's Enduring Whatever. And that's a good thing…At first glance of the DVD cover you'd be forgiven if you thought it was a love story, what with our two leads looking longingly into space and a horse walking past a sunrise for some reason. That tagline doesn't help matters either. The center of the story is Tommy's musical journey. His relationship with Kat is a secondary plotline, used primarily as a vehicle to get him in trouble and into the prison where the real guts of the film take place: the orchestration. Sure there's some light relationship gossamer to chew on, but it's not nearly the emotional love journey you would think: it's sweet-natured, understated and doesn't overshadow Tommy's story. His attempt to seize on his musical dream resonated with me in a surprising way. The similarities to Billy Elliot are inescapable, from the plot element of a working-class stiff hiding an artistic passion to the disapproving hard-ass dad (who eventually comes around, natch). Granting this…er…“fami­liarity,” I'm still pleased with this effort. Luke Arnold delivers an engaging performance. He's a charismatic, good-looking kid and this is absolutely his movie. All the characters revolve around him and the actor is strong enough to carry the day. The supporting cast led by Hutton, Vega, and some memorable faces in the prison is strong enough to buttress Arnold's perfor­mance. It all ends in memorable fashion with the inevitable final concert. An equally inevitable narrative monkey wrench is thrown into the gears earlier, delivering the necessary hiccup before the sprint to the happy ending, but what an ending. It's not a spoiler to tell you that we finally get to see the results of Tommy's orches­trating and it's terrific. The film ends a bit too abruptly and the title stinks, but that's about all I can summon as far as complaining goes; Broken Hill is a nice little gem of a family film." DVD Verdict