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Leading Players: Miranda Otto (Patsy), Matt Day (Ralph), Richard Roxburgh (Boyd), Gus Mercurio (Tyrone), Betty Bobbitt (Connie).
Doing Time for Patsy Cline is a light-hearted, almost fantastic, blend of Australian iconography and a number of classical cinematic genres and storylines. Taking the form of a road movie through which three characters develop their relationships with one another kilometre by kilometre, Chris Kennedy's latest effort is far from predictable. While the film's plot isn't new, Kennedy strove to break free of the confines of cinematic conventions in retelling the fairytale rise-to-glory and subsequent fall from grace that has, so often, been the subject of films. As the journey progresses to the point at which each character's façade is broken down, and their weaknesses and desires revealed (to the police as well as each other), we find the two main male characters, Boyd (Richard Roxburgh) and Ralph (Matt Day) in gaol together. Now, up until this point, the film's narrative progressed in a traditional, linear fashion. In what could have potentially been a dull, boring interlude between the first and third acts, Chris Kennedy hits the audience with a surprise flash-forward that accelerates the narrative to the point in which all three main characters are again united, out of gaol, and are working towards obtaining their dreams together. While the first flash-forward does shock, the subsequent appearance of such out-of-sequence interludes work to speed up the pace of the film, while providing humorous contrasts between the relationships that the characters share during the gaol sequence and the future relationships that they hold. The decision to arrange the scenes in a delinear fashion, similar in style to Pulp Fiction (1994), cleverly allowed Kennedy to deal with a "safe" plot that has seen success time and time again, while providing enough innovation to place the film in a category of its own. This stylistic element also highlighted the sharp contrasts that Kennedy has drawn between the fast-paced, shallow Tennessee atmosphere in comparison to the laid-back Australian lifestyle in which a man has only his friends and the landscape as witness to his life. The scenes that are shot in Tennessee are predominantly shot at night, while it is raining, or shrouded in smoke (following Boyd's death in a plane crash that mirrors the real-life death of Patsy's namesake). This gives the city a dark, gritty, unforgiving feel that is lightened only by the positive reaction of the crowd to the song that Ralph and Patsy (Miranda Otto, in a brutally honest portrayal) teamed up to perform. The Australian scenes, on the other hand, are mainly shot in daylight, highlighting the bright colours and stark beauty of the landscape that is so unforgiving and yet so comforting in comparison to the hard-edged, competitive Tennessee atmosphere.
The copyright of the article Film Review: Doing Time For Patsy Cline (1997) in Australian Cinema is owned by . Permission to republish Film Review: Doing Time For Patsy Cline (1997) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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