"A Fish Out of Water"
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What You Need To Know:
LOVE SERENADE suggests that marriage to a divorced middle-aged man will solve a lonely woman’s problems. All the characters in this story seem quite desperate and pathetic. Billed as a comedy, this movie has very few laughs − it doesn’t even try to be funny. It completely avoids the comic possibilities inherent in the differences between the sexes. Unlikely to gain much attention or money in the U.S., Americans will consider romantic tangles like the recently released ADDICTED TO LOVE complex compared to this shallow swimmer. Containing a no-name cast, LOVE SERENADE sinks in the river.
Content:
(Ro, NN, SS, D, M) Romantic worldview where woman seek fulfillment through sex & love; no foul language; woman throws man from tall building; upper female nudity, woman strips to underwear & upper male nudity; man exhibits promiscuous attitudes & implied & briefly depicted fornication; smoking; and, sisters fight with words
More Detail:
Men may be from Mars, but they also just might be another species. This is the premise of a quirky, droll comedy from Australia entitled LOVE SERENADE. Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, this movie pits two lower-class sisters who fight over a man, who might be a fish. Twenty-one year old Dimitry (Miranda Otto) and twenty-six year old Vicki-Ann Hurley (Rebecca Frith ) live quiet and unsatisfied lives in the fictional small town of Sunray, Australia. Dimitry works at a Chinese restaurant as its sole waitress, while Vicki-Ann styles hair at a unisex saloon. Their only hobby is to fish. Their lives are turned around when Ken Sherry moves next door. Vicki-Ann instantly recognizes the mid-forties, thrice divorced, ex-drivetime King of Brisbane Radio. Dimitry doesn’t recognize Ken as a celebrity and could care less that he has moved next door.
Vicki-Ann tries to woo Ken by bringing him casseroles, but Dimitry ultimately meets and gets to know Ken first when he comes into the restaurant. Dimitry becomes enchanted by the smooth talking, mysterious stranger. Soon, they are both at Ken’s house looking at a stuffed Marlin he has hanging on his wall. Emboldened, Dimitry offers to “ease Ken’s loneliness” by stripping in front of him. Their play is interrupted by a knock on the door by a jealous Vicki-Ann.
The next day, Dimitry returns to Ken, and he “de-flowers” her. When Vicki-Ann finds out about this, she refuses to talk with Dimitry and executes her revenge by sleeping with Ken. Vicki-Ann finds the fling so wonderful, she has delusions of marrying Ken and knocks on his door wearing a wedding dress. Ken says he doesn’t want to marry her. Hurt, Vicki-Ann climbs a tall silo tower and threatens to jump. Dimitry brings Ken to the tower so that he might help, but a sudden dramatic turn in the story results in a near-death experience and a revealing of Ken’s true identity.
Recent Australian imports such as MURIEL’S WEDDING and STRICTLY BALLROOM seem to have a fascination with disenchanted love. LOVE SERENADE suggests that marriage to even a divorced middle-aged man will solve all of a lonely woman’s problems. Playing with the fantasy theme that men might be a different species, even a fish, this plot device seems out of place and illogical in this otherwise realistic story. Ken is no looker, even if he is adept at playing 70’s love songs, which makes the desperation of these sisters quite pathetic. When Dimitry quickly offers her body to Ken, one wonders if there are any other men in this town. One might conclude that she wants to spite her sister by trying to conquer Ken first, but their family conflict is not adequately foreshadowed. A drastic change in the plot at the end of the movie further confuses the audience.
Billed as a comedy, this movie has very few laughs; it doesn’t even try to be funny. It just unfolds at a pace like gentle river, completely avoiding the comic possibilities inherent in the differences between the sexes. Unlikely to gain much attention in the U.S., Americans will consider romantic tangles like the recently released ADDICTED TO LOVE complex compared to this shallow swimmer. Containing a no-name cast, LOVE SERENADE sinks in the river.
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