Praise (1998) Reviews

• Tender is the grungey night

  Philby-31999-05-03

  The term "loser" to an Australian ear has a nasty harsh American stridency to it which seems to absolve the person uttering it from any sympathy for the "loser" in question. Now Gordon and Cynthia are definitely "losers" but at the end of this film we see beauty in an otherwise fairly pathetic pair. Gordon, in his mid-twenties, a country boy who's drifted to the city, works in a bottle store and lives in a once grand but now squalid rooming house occupied by various broken-down old men. He meets Cynthia, a barmaid, at work and for no particular reason they both quit. She moves in with him when her military parents are transferred. Gordon's chief recreation is drinking, and hers is sex, and after a while Gordon is dreading going to bed. Yet something happens between them and affection grows, even though we can see it's hopeless. There is beauty even in a doomed relationship between two misfits. Quite why their lives have become so aimless is not really explored; both seem to have untraumatic backgrounds and neither is really cut off from their families. Gordon's lost love Rachel appears towards the end but he's lost interest in her, too. Gordon is at home amongst the deros, prematurely old, out of steam, life over before it really got started. It sounds depressing and it is, but the relationship is tender and warm - a less melodramatic version of "Leaving Las Vegas." The story is set in Brisbane, though apparently not filmed there, and the humid stifling summer atmosphere is well evoked. It doesn't really explain the lack of motivation though.

• It's Been a Year!

  abundance2000-02-22

  I don't know who reads these things, but if anybody with any power or clout or interest could please note that this is a great film. Without a doubt much better than THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT or GO! or any other film you can name from last year's SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. I was one of the lucky audience members that was exposed to Curan's unique vision. Beauty was found in the most disgusting places. It's been a year since I've seen this film. A number of my friends have had to read the book (which is available in the US) instead of watching miss Sacha Horler's performance --which apparently won her an award in Australia. Great job! Please bring this film to America. I don't care if I need to order my own copy... this is not to be missed and, sadly, this entire country has missed out on it. Thank you for your kind attention.

• A splendidly atmospheric filmic version of the best selling book by Andrew Mcgahan.

  helenka1999-04-24

  Praise the movie is a splendidly laid back version of Andrew McGahan's award winning best seller. The movie traces the odd love story between Gordon, the asthmatic heavy drinking under-achiever, and Cynthia, his energetic and demanding lover. Cynthia, to Gordon's panic, expects sex 'every morning and every night' - "exhausting" is the way Gordon describes her. Set against the seedy boarding house where Gordon lives, the film explores the world of the socially displaced, and the under-motivated. It also looks at the way which relationships can implode despite the best intentions of its players. McGahan's book Praise was the first of the 'grunge'fiction which swept through Australia (and other parts of the world) in the early 1990s. Despite the somewhat depressing story, the characters are depicted both in print and film with love, honesty and clarity. The performances of the actors in the film help the audience to like them both, and regard them with affection. This film is a wonderful insight into a life that for many people is baffling - and for that reason alone should be regarded as an important Australian film.

• At Home with Gordo & Cynnie

  Rogue-322002-10-31

  Noticed this on cable last night and wasn't sure I was going to watch the entire film; there was another movie starting in about half an hour that I was thinking of switching to...but by the time the reminder for that film came on my screen, I knew I was in for the duration. Praise lures you in with the shockingly gnarly realism of its sex-crazed female protagonist Cynthia, portrayed with beyond-fearless, jaw-dropping commitment by Sacha Horler. Cynthia is RAW, literally, and she lives for only one thing: physical pleasure. She's an animal, basically, an primal being totally devoid of any domestication, a wildebeast in perpetual heat, and our 'hero' Gordon is both repulsed and attracted (as we are) by Cynthia's blatancy - she's everything he's not, and eventually he submits to her warped energy, her whirlwind of over-indulgence (and of course her sexuality), and for a short while his life has meaning. You realize going in that this film will not turn into yer basic "and-they-lived-happily-ever-after" number, so we're not surprised when -=- MINOR SPOILER -=- Gordo finally has had enough; this damsel of the deranged has literally drained him dry and he has to cut her loose. The most poignant part of the movie, for me, takes place at the end, when, quite simply, Cynthia isn't there anymore, and we feel her absence just as profoundly as Gordon does.

• hate to say it, but not as good as the book

  eggbert-21999-04-27

  I'm just not too sure about this film. I loved the book, but somehow the film is just missing something. I think that you are not treated to as much of Gordon's inner thoughts and motivations, and so he comes off as less of a sympathetic character than in the novel. I concede, though, that it would have been quite difficult to achieve some sort of balance in the portrayal of the main protagonists, especially considering that Cynthia is such a dominant, aggressive (albeit sexually) personality. Despite my misgivings though, the performances are fantastic, especially Sacha Horler as Cynthia. Probably a common gripe from anyone living in Brisbane is that although the film is set here, it is so obviously not filmed here. I've heard all the stories about budget constraints and what not, but it still irks me (and many others) that a cult brisbane novel was filmed in sydney, no matter how universal its themes.