Walkabout

I love a good blindside. I can really appreciate when a scene is built up and plays out fairly expectedly, then at the drop of a hat something crazy drops out of the blue and completely changes the direction the film was heading. Safe to say, at some point in Walkabout this happens. I won’t say when or what, but I was pleasantly surprised by the way this film turned out, as two British children, including Jenny Agutter, a long way from the Railway Children, head out into the Australian outback with their father for a picnic. The film contains beautiful images of scenery and wildlife worthy of Attenborough, though Agutter’s skinny dipping scene is a little unnecessary – standing up in shallow water and giving a full turn, floating gracefully along on her back before putting on her tight white blouse, sopping wet against her pale, smooth skin... excuse me a moment.

 ...sorry about that, got myself a bit distracted there. Anyway, this is a great little film, directed by Nicolas Roeg (Don’t Look Now, Performance), with some thought provoking editing (cutting between a kangaroo being slaughtered and a butcher cutting up chicken), occasionally lewd comedy (all the men at a research base looking up the skirt and down the top of their attractive colleague) and only a rambling nature and slightly unsatisfactory conclusion letting it down.

Choose film 7/10