I could say a lot about this. I could talk about how there is absolutely no chemistry between Toni Collette and Gotaro Tsunashima, rendering their developing relationship more hypothetical than anything else. I could mention that Mr. Tsunashima shows no charisma whatsoever, not neccessarily a shortcoming in general, but deadly for movie about two people falling for each other. I could explain why the direction is uninspired at best, content with easy signifiers (loneliness = eating baked beans alone, grief=crying and hitting the bathroom wall). I could say that the super-secret, don't-tell-your-friends-make-them-see-it-cuz-it-worked-for-The Crying Game twist actually works, at least for a couple minutes, before it becomes apparent that the twist is a lazy screenwriter's gambit, and they got nothin' left, leaving the film to spin its wheels in the red dust for the remaining time. I could mention how the performance of the guy playing Baird is atrocious, all capital letter ACTING, and go on to detail a theory that good Australian acting is an oxymoron (and I like Collette and Geoffrey Rush).
But instead, I'll leave the final word to my wife, Aza, a veritable fount of wisdom:
"It was kind of like Gerry, only the opposite."
Where we saw it: film | We deign to rate it: outta 100