Matching Jack
Movie Information
Marisa is a mother forced to take matters into her own hands to save the life of her son, Jack after he is diagnosed with Leukemia. Determined to find a bone marrow donor, Marisa undertakes a tireless and exhaustive search, including delving into the infidelities of her husband David in the hope that a donor might exist as a result of one of his many extra marital affairs. Meanwhile, during his treatment, Jack befriends Finn, a young Irish boy in the next bed who has also been diagnosed with the same disease.
------------------------------------------------------------
Rated: [M]
Cinema Release: 19 Aug 2010
Director: Nadia Tass
Running Time: 103 mins
Stars: Jacinda Barrett, James Nesbitt, Yvonne Strahovski
| IMDb | Rotten TomatoesMovie Review
TO its credit, the Australian kids-with-possibly-terminal-illnesses drama Matching Jack refrains from playing it strictly for weeps.
However, it is the very moments that the film goes wilfully off-topic that prove to be its undoing.
The story centres on a married couple, architect David (Richard Roxburgh) and wife Marissa (Jacinda Barrett) rocked by the news that their only son, Jack (Tom Russell), has contracted leukemia.
With Jack immediately confined to a hospital ward, the understandably panicked parents are told their boy's best chance of beating the life-threatening condition is to find a suitable bone marrow donor.
The odds of doing so are long, because the family's genetic make-up is rare. But as luck would have it, Marissa has just discovered David has been sleeping with every woman he has met for more than 10 years.
Suspecting - no, make that hoping - her cheating husband may have impregnated at least one of his many lovers around town, Marissa embarks on a bizarre door-knocking campaign.
Should there be a David-sired love child or two in existence, there might also be a donor who can save Jack's life.
This is original territory for a film of this type to be covering, but director Nadia Tass never quite finds a way to navigate it smoothly.
Scenes of Marissa continuing her tragi-comic crusade seem strangely forced and unbelievable when viewed alongside Jack's fight with his illness.
In fact, Matching Jack fares better when simply focusing on its young title character, and the boy's moving friendship with another leukemia patient, Finn (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
British actor James Nesbitt also bolsters this superior section of the film, playing Finn's heart-breakingly upbeat father.
No comments:
Post a Comment