Review of The Sapphires (2012) by Michael H — 10 Feb 2013

The feel-good rise to fame movie about an unknown Aboriginal Australian all-girl soul group set mostly in Vietnam? Feel-good in Vietnam? How?

Immediately drawing favourable comparisons with "Dreamgirls", this first feature film from new-comer Wayne Blair was on my watch-list from the off. Though the very term 'feel-good' can sometimes make my skin crawl, the combination of aspiring soul singers and Vietnam was too irresistable to ignore.

I'm glad I heeded it's call. Though by no means a great movie, "The Sapphires" succeeds due to some great locations and heaps of sincerity. It's not until the film transports its cast to exotic, war-torn Vietnam that it really gets going, the setting used excellently as a back-drop to the relationship-play of our 5 leads. Using a comparatively tiny £10M budget Blair manages to build a convincing war zone, complete with a VC attack on a US base that was surprisingly effective. Having been starved of Vietnam movies for the last few years, the film managed to summon glimpses of the classics back to me as I watched, leaving me to conclude that this film should stand as a Vietnam movie in its own right.

The movie's biggest failing is with a patchy script which felt well-worked in some places (O'Dowd's dialogue a prime example) and loose elsewhere. A dramatic meeting with the Viet Cong an hour in is so brief and anti-climactic that you can sneeze and miss it. Having been built-up previously and almost immediately followed with an action scene of real panache, one can't help but wonder if it would have been better removed during a further edit. Similarly, while some characters' stories coaxed some warmth into my cold, cynical veins (Shari Sebbens dislocated black/white Kay), others were let down by cliched dialogue (O'Dowd's and Mailman's relationship). Though partly redeemed by some solid and sincere performances from the cast, it still feels like the script missed a needed final re-working.

I think most people will know whether they will like this film going in. It delivers on it's promise of some great soul numbers delivered with gusto against a dramatic back-drop, though is certainly hit and miss with it's dramatic moments.