"As rich an experience as life itself, so full of subtext, themes and messages" Drew Turney, FilmInk Magazine Its

a provocative portrait of contemporary Australia... Its got plenty of charm and wit and its highly entertaining. But, taking its cue from Elliot Perlmans provocative novel, its also a searing portrait of John Howards Australia... It should become part of many a lively debate Peter Thompson, Sunday "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll count your blessings. We should make more films like this" Rachael Turk, IF Magazine * * * * 1/2 At last, a quality Australian film to offset the recent drought! Like real life, THREE DOLLARS is sometimes funny, sometimes scary, sometimes sad, sometimes hopeful... I loved it! David Stratton, At The Movies **** A beautifully made snap shot of contemporary Australia...There should be more Australian films made like this one

Megan Spencer, The Movie Show **** A refreshingly honest and compassionate film Jaimie Leonarder, The Movie Show One of the richest and most credible glimpses of family life weve seen on screen for a long time Julie Rigg, ABC Radio National An appealing fable of shattered illusions Colin Fraser, SX A powerful film that resonates long after the final credits have rolled. THREE DOLLARS encourages you to scrutinize your own beliefs Luke Benedictus, The Sunday Age A high class film Sunday Herald Sun This is the film Australia has been waiting for: a thoroughly, absolutely credible check on how we now live as a nation Noel Purdon, The Adelaide Review I have seen nothing finer from Wenham. His Eddie has astonishing depth and sensitivity. This is a film of profound and troubling ideas, with many scenes of heartrending power... A drama of conscience, raising important questions of contemporary politics and public morality... The film can be taken as a sorrowful critique of the unfeeling market forces that rule our lives and as a touching study of friendship and survival Evan Williams, The Australian Robert Connolly is a natural master of film... A fascinating work, filled with little treasures of observation, performance and technique... Engaging and a pleasure to watch Andrew L. Urban, Urbancinefile **** A rare gem of a film... (Connolly) delivers yet again a film of substance, tension and truisms Nicole Watts, elevenmagazine.com

**** THREE DOLLARS is easily the best Australian film this year Rod Chester, The Daily Telegraph I cant think of an Australian film which has captured marital happiness so truthfully Wit as well as warmth Sandra Hall, The Sydney Morning Herald David Wenhams near-flawless performance gives the sense of seeing an entire life on screen Rob Lowing, The Sun-Herald Wenhams performance, a subtle blend of resilience and quiet desperation, is one of his best... Not since Lantana has a film taken us so far into the headspace of an Australian man Lawrie Zion, The Australian A powerful film that resonates long after the final credits have rolled... THREE DOLLARS encourages you to scrutinize your own beliefs Luke Benedictus, The Sunday Age Painfully funny Vicky Roach, Marie Claire "One of the best Australian films yet made" Bob Ellis, Encore Magazine "* * * * A cut above the rest... A brave movie that will strike a chord with couples everywhere.. A sure bet for AFI glory come November OK! Magazine Could be the best film produced in Australia this year. A story worthy of a nations rapture Emily Williams, Scene An important film Last Magazine

DAVID STRATTON REVIEWS THREE DOLLARS * * * * 1/2

Three Dollars is the latest film from Australian director Robert Connolly who brought us The Bank. Hes working again with David Wenham who plays Eddie a man in his late 30s who works in a government office responsible for assessing land earmarked for development. One day he loses his job and is escorted from the building. He recalls that every 9 years he has crossed paths with Amanda, once the little girl next door he used to play with. Eddie is married to the lovely and brilliant Tanya, Frances O'Connor, and they have a delightful daughter, Abby, Johanna Hunt-Prokhovnic. Eddie remembers how he met Tanya and how, despite their love for one another, they've made compromises over the years. Eddie also remembers the occasions he met Amanda, Sarah Wynter, whose father is the rich developer whose land he has been assessing. At last, a quality Australian film to offset the recent drought! THREE DOLLARS is an adaptation by director Robert Connolly and author Elliot Perlman of Perlman's successful novel and it's a character-driven piece made with intelligence and wit. Eddie is an unfailingly decent and kind man, but often a rather ineffectual and indecisive one; the women in his life, Tanya, Amanda, even his daughter, Abby, have it all over him; and yet you really like Eddie, thanks to David Wenham's typically fine performance. The film is about the small things in life which add up to become big things - like The Beatles said, Life's what happens when you're busy making other plans, and that's Eddie's problem. The film is a brutal reminder of how close to the financial edge many Australians are living in these unhealthy times, and how the resulting stress compromises youthful idealism. This is a fine local production and the family scenes are especially good, thanks in no small part to a terrific performance from young Johanna Hunt-Prokhovnic, who is clearly a natural. Like real life, THREE DOLLARS is sometimes funny, something scary, sometimes sad, sometimes hopeful - and I hope the film finds the audience it deserves.

Film: Three Dollars

April 24, 2005 Reporter : Peter Thompson Sunday Channel 9 The continuing barney about what kind of films we should make in Australia is essentially the eternal conflict between commerce and art. The surprising thing is that so many of our box office hits cover both bases: Breaker Morant, Strictly Ballroom, Shine, Lantana and so on. What it boils down to for most Australian filmmakers is that if theyre going to devote two or three years of their lives to a project and possibly starve in the process, then it had better be something they care passionately about. Thats certainly the case with Robert Connollys Three Dollars. Like his previous film The Bank, its got plenty of charm and wit and its highly entertaining. But, taking its cue from Elliot Perlmans provocative novel, its also a searing portrait of John Howards Australia

Eddie Harnovey is a university graduate with a good job in the government bureaucracy. Hes also the loving father of a bright little girl called Abby and his wife is the tantalizingly beautiful, temperamental Tanya, the girl he fell in love with as a student and has loved ever since. Robert Connolly: "I feel very strongly that we are supposedly coming out the end of 10 years of great economic growth, yet why are people feeling so economically uncertain? Uncertain enough to vote at the last election over the fear of interest rates going up, you know. Why is it that people feel that they are, a fear that they wont be able to educate their children or that the hospital system will let them down?" For Robert Connolly, Eddie is a decent man living in an insecure, dog-eat-dog world where the loss of a few weeks work could mean that the mortgage doesnt get paid. Robert Connolly: "I guess the ambition of the film was to tell the story of a family man and a good man (played by David Wenham) in tough times, you know, and lets make a story about a guy thats trying to stay true to what he believes and what he feels is right in a world thats kind of bombarding him with challenges." The crunch comes when Eddie is asked to push through an environmental assessment on a dodgy residential development. He begins sticking his nose in where its not wanted, finding evidence of dangerous chemical contamination. Robert Connolly: "I do feel that more than ever we have economic pressures that are coming to bear in a way that asks us to turn a blind eye to worrying about things beyond ourself in order to protect ourself." Eddies boss, Gerard, isnt interested in his problems. Things are complicated by some personal history. Gerard was Tanyas lover briefly in their university days. While Three Dollarsconcerns itself with the big picture, the world Eddie and his family live in, the story comes down to very specific, intimate moments. The pressure mounts when Abby gets sick and theres the regular reappearance of Eddies childhood sweetheart Amanda. Robert Connolly: I really wanted to, to make a film that brought people to tears, you know, that actually took people on an, a complex emotional journey that could break your heart, you know, that would have the ups and down of life and kind of leave you with optimism, a complex optimism about life rather than necessarily the kind of, you know people in The Bank were cheering when the bank was destroyed. Three Dollars is a deceptive film, a bit of a fist in a velvet glove. On the surface, its got a witty, slightly absent-minded quality. Eddie is a man constantly surprised by the weird coincidences and improbability of everyday life. He loves it all but sometimes it gets to be a bit of a challenge. At the same time, he senses that the society around him is unraveling. People are getting increasingly insecure and benevolence is in short supply. Its a provocative portrait of contemporary Australia as well as being a highly entertaining movie and it should become part of many a lively debate.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Three Dollars Reviewed by Sandra Hall April 21, 2005
Think of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara and Colin Firth as Mr Darcy and you'd be tempted to conclude the recipe for the ideal adaptation is all in the casting. First catch your character and the essence of the book should start to permeate your film with the smoothness and consistency of the perfect sauce. That's the theory, and Robert Connolly has taken it to heart in choosing David Wenham to take on the role of Eddie Harnovey, the beleaguered hero of Elliot Perlman's novel Three Dollars. Wenham slips so naturally into Eddie's skin it's almost eerie. My copy of the book, the new paperback edition, has him on the cover, but even without this subliminal prompt, his face would have been in front of me as I read. Eddie may be a lot more dependable and less elusive than Wenham's Diver Dan from SeaChange, but the essentials are the same. He's funny and honest and likes to help, but the sunniness of his character is shot through with small slivers of irony and pessimism. He has a sharp eye for life's small print - the ominous bits which alert you to the fact that you're not getting the bargain you may have been led to expect. On the face of it, Eddie and his wife, Tanya - played by Frances O'Connor, another impeccable casting choice - have a right to expect whatever they desire. She's a university tutor with a thesis in the works and what looks to be a burgeoning career as an academic, and he's a chemical engineer with the Department of Planning and Environment. The bank likes their prospects enough to give them a mortgage on a house, and they have a small daughter, Abby (Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik), who's already sharing her parents' playful love of words and ideas. Only one thing mars their happiness. Tanya's apprehensions about life's downside far exceed Eddie's own. He can live with his, but hers strike so hard that she's given them a name - "the all ordinaries". When Tanya's "all ordinaries" index slumps, she takes to her bed until Eddie can talk her up again with his unwavering belief in their own personal futures market. This makes it sound like a story about depression, which it isn't. Perlman is writing about all the things that go to shape our lives during their most malleable years. It's a story about good luck, bad luck and the meaning of coincidence. It's also about

courtship, marriage and the particular brand of emotional shorthand which can keep a couple together when everything around them is falling apart. Putting this on screen is like catching smoke in a bottle - and not just any old smoke, but the kind which billows on the horizon to warn of the fire approaching from over the hill. For Eddie and Tanya are right to have misgivings about what's to become of them. Both lose their jobs and one day at the ATM, Eddie finds himself with just $3 left. The novel takes its time in bringing him to this point. The screenplay, which Perlman and Connolly co-wrote, plunges you right in, starting with the moment when Eddie is fired before being escorted from the building carrying a cardboard box with the contents of his desk drawers. From here, flashbacks proliferate in an artful jigsaw which takes you back through his childhood and university days to the assignment that has brought him undone. Sent to investigate a proposed development, he writes an adverse report on its environmental impact. The report is ignored and Eddie blows the whistle. Could he have done otherwise? That's not really Perlman's question. He's asking you to wonder why the forces of cause and effect didn't behave otherwise. What if Eddie's egregious boss, Gerard (David Roberts), a former enemy from his student days, hadn't hated him? And what can he take from the fact that the gorgeous Amanda (Sarah Wynter), his friend from childhood, keeps turning up in his life at its most significant points? There are some great moments in all this. I can't think of an Australian film which has captured marital happiness so truthfully. The scenes between Eddie and Tanya have wit as well as warmth - the bracing chime of two intellects working as one. Not that they always agree. They don't, and that's part of the pleasure as well as the pain. In fact, their years together are more than enough to fill a film - which is the problem with this one. While mediocre novels can be brought to life on the screen by being slashed to fit, the good ones often resist. So although Connolly and Perlman have made all the right moves, the result remains jumpy and unco-ordinated, as if the novel had taken on a life of its own and was protesting at being uprooted from its natural home, pulled out of shape and wrestled on to the screen.

JIM SCHEMBRI GOOD VALUE IN THREE DOLLARS * * * 1/2 out of 5 While walking home one night with his takeaway curry, Eddie (David Wenham) encounters Nick (Robert Menzies), a distraught, haggard man anxious to find a home for a lost dog. During their revealing outdoor exchange, Eddie learns of Nicks many troubles; flushed with concern, he offers help. Is there somebody I can call? he asks. The unforced sincerity in Eddies manner prompts Nick, clearly unused to anyone caring for him, to demand why hes doing this. You seem like a decent bloke, Eddie replies. Its one of a cluster of golden, humane moments that grace Robert Connollys moving, finely directed contemporary drama, touching on themes that riff on the notion of dignity and selfrespect in the face of hardship. Recurring motifs particularly the sum of three dollars stud the film to mark how events and people have changed, and how some things, such as Eddies prosaic sense of decency, do not. Connolly, who co-wrote the script with novelist Elliot Perlman, deftly infuses the film with a pervasive sense of karma and serendipity as Eddies story unfurls. As Eddie bids Nick farewell, we sense their paths shall cross again. Eddie is marries to the spirited Tanya (Frances OConnor) and works as a government scientist whose soil tests determine whether lucrative planning permits will be granted. They have a child and, for a time, enjoy a life so comfortable and fulfilling, they fleetingly wonder whether they have unwittingly surrendered to the bourgeois values they faddishly resented during their bumpy courtship days at uni. Eddies voiceover guides us through a boisterous and funny first act as he recounts his younger years, most of which were spent hanging out in record stores and trying to win Tanyas affections with his startlingly accurate impersonations of Ian Curtis from Joy Division. As he glides into midlife, however, a more somber hue washes over the drama as the weight of material trouble, child rearing, ballooning debt and career stumbles kick in. Its hard finding fault in David Wenhams CV. Hes an actor whose versatility stretches to all points of the acting compass, from comedy (Getting Square) to epics (Lord of the Rings) to historical biopic (Father Damien). Here, as an Aussie everyman, however, he is at his most impressive, exuding a quiet dignity that is as possible as it is subtle.

Three Dollars
Reviewer Julie Rigg, ABC Radio National Classification M In Three Dollars David Wenham takes on the toughest role of his career -- playing a good man, an ordinary bloke called Eddie, with a wife, a child, and mortgage, who winds up one day with no job and three dollars in his pocket. In some of Hitchcocks greatest films, the hero struggles with a fear of falling. Think of Jimmy Stewart swooning in the bell tower in Vertigo, or Cary Grant dangling from the giant granite nose of George Washington on Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest. The late Ray Durgnat, a Yorkshire critic who understood better than anybody the anxieties behind the lace curtained respectability of the world Hitchcock had sprung from, once suggested that this fear of falling was a metaphor for the anxieties his parents had instilled in him. Step outside the class role you have been assigned and disgrace and oblivion follow. The fear of falling, of dropping right off the inspirational ladder and landing in the gutter, has begun to crop up in more than one Australian film of late. It was there in Alkimos Tsilimdos's film Tom White, in which Colin Freils' architect has a breakdown at work and winds up living on the streets. And its there in Three Dollars. David Wenhams Eddie is a chemical engineer with a public service job, a wife, Tanya, whos a rather volatile academic, a six-year-old daughter and a sardonic sense of humour with which he keeps at bay the more idiotic vicissitudes of his work and family life. Hes an middle class man trying to stay afloat while his boss puts pressure on him at work, and his wifes best friend leaves her husband, and moves into his house to sort herself out, and begins to cry on his shoulder. Eddies inner life is haunted by memories of his childhood first love, Amanda, whose parents forbad her to play with him, and moved away to a glossier suburb when her father began to make good money. And of his own parents, clinging to the meagre material fringes of life.

Amanda the golden princess appears intermittently in Eddies life to remind him of the social gulf between them. And Tanya, a much feistier real love, is having her own struggle to finish her thesis and hang on to her tutoring job. Then their beloved daughter gets ill. And Eddie is asked to sign off on an environmental clean bill of health for a big development deal. One of the joys of Robert Connollys new film is the warmth and delicacy with which it deals with family life: the marital jokes, the bedtime musings, the sudden rush of delight watching a child interpret the world. When American films speak of 'family values' these days we know we are in for quite a bit of breast-beating, or worse: a parent using a threat to a child to justify any kind of lurid vigilante action. The world outside is a hostile place. This film creates a beguiling domestic mood. When Eddies household starts to come unstuck, those moments with their daughter, the memories of Tanya taking on the world as an undergraduate 'well why shouldnt a woman play Hamlet?' are what keep him on track. Frances OConnor as Tanya and the stunning child actor Joanna Hunt-Prokovnik as their daughter Abby make this one of the richest and most credible glimpses of family life weve seen onscreen for a long time. But the world outside is, if not a hostile place, then an increasingly slippery one. Selfinterest is the only acceptable motivation. The challenge for the film is to hold our attention as the mood darkens, and the kinds of pressures with which Australians now wrestle: downsizing, political expediency, mortgage payments, the various ways that economic rationalism impinge on us all. There comes a time when Eddies two main defences: a sardonic sense of humour, and a stubborn, even perverse, sense of kindness, will no longer hold them all at bay. Three Dollars Robert Connollys second feature film as a director. As a producer, he made The Boy with David Wenham. Then he wrote and directed The Bank, a caper film about a computer genius who tries to use the greed of the operators of a big banking corporation to exact revenge. Different genre, similar themes. This film, adapted from Elliot Perlmans novel, is an altogether more modest film, and a surer one. Watching it, I was surprised to find myself laughing with Eddies sardonic take on the world. And on the way home on the bus, still captured by the memory of a family huddled together on the sofa in the dawn, I was just as surprised to find myself having a little weep.

Megan Spencer, Triple J THREE DOLLARS

The filmmaking is so good Impeccably made Acted incredibly well Compelling I found myself completely compelled and enjoying spending time with these characters and going on their journey It challenges the audience Not unlike Lantana you could compare it to that I found myself laughing a lot

Three Dollars http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/ Review by Andrew L. Urban:

Three Dollars is such a strange film I am tempted to read the novel (only time constraints have held me back so far) to see if the tantalising episodes of Eddie's life captured here find some cohesion through the inner voice of literature. The cinematic arts of the film are beyond doubt: Robert Connolly is a natural master of film, and he makes this a fascinating work, filled with little treasures of observation, performance and technique. The symbolism is obtuse, and three dollars and the three women in Eddie's life (wife, daughter, Amanda) are not readily identifiable as cross symbolic. For me, the film's theme is decency or integrity, something Eddie suffers for in various ways, from losing his job to helping others. Each time he goes to help someone, he pays the price. But in the case of his decency toward one homeless man (Robert Menzies in top form), he is repaid in kind. The fact that it is this outcast of society who returns the good deed is perhaps one of the film's melancholy messages about our world. David Wenham brings his humanity to the role with a subtle and wide ranging performance in which he is required to show many facets of a morally upright man in a morally uncertain world. Frances O'Connor shows once again her range and her depth as Tanya, while the tiny, sweet little Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik is a terrific find. Eddie's reflection on the coincidence that he meets Amanda every nine and a half years - and this is the fourth - is a more important to him for its obscurity, perhaps, than for any real meaning. Like wise for us, but the film is engaging and a pleasure to watch, especially the first half. First and foremost a character study, Three Dollars also brings together elements that could be identified (loosely) as romantic comedy, thriller and psychological drama. In the end, Eddie comes through his trials with his integrity and decency providing the comfort that financial security could not. Family and self knowledge give him the strength and peace of mind he could never find elsewhere. On the way, he comes face to face with the brutality of the modern world - in every walk of life.

www.infilm.com.au ****1/2
Review by Luke Buckmaster

As the sweaty climate for Australian filmmaking rages on, promising new director Robert Connolly releases his second picture Three Dollars, a diligent and well refined drama starring David Wenham as a wholesome man whose values become threatened by financial burdens and social conscience. Adapting from a book by Victorian novelist Elliott Perlman, who also co-wrote the screenplay, Connelly combines a strong character arc with an intriguing story and pieces together the smartest and most interesting Australian film so far on the calendar for 2005. Three Dollars makes a number of topical and thought provoking observations about the fickle nature of financial security and how many lower/middle class families are only a couple of pay checks away from the poverty line. Similar in theme to Alkinos Tsilimidos' Tom White (2004) the film traces the descent of protagonist Eddie Harnovey (Wenham) into financial and personal insecurity, laboriously sketching him as an ordinary bloke slowly shredded by the system. Along the way a number of fleeting but memorable minor characters reinforce Connolly and Perlman's perspective on metropolitan life as a detached, borderline inhumane culture, a housing ground for congregations of flawed folk bound by the shackles of society where man made practises often get the better of moral liability. Coyly intertwined with suggestive nods towards fate and unusual circumstances, there is a graceful air of humanity that swoons the film's dramatics into modes of expressive, surreptitious exposition. Eddie is a cleat-cut all round nice guy with a gentle way about him and a good head on his shoulders. His job as a chemical engineer who examines soil for site developments allows him to zone out of the groan of his day to day existence, which includes issues with his wife Tanya (Frances O'Connor) and the parenting of their six year old daughter Abby (Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik). Strange things happen to Eddie in vague and subtle ways -- every nine and a half years, for example, he bumps into childhood friend Amanda (Sarah Wynter) for a quick coffee and a chinwag. Eddie's living situation complicates when Tanya loses her job and he is forced to nut out some tough decisions regarding a site that may not be appropriate for housing. Despise some scepticisms littered in the press regarding the legitimacy of the film's final act, Three Dollars remains a plausible and affecting social fable bereft of preachy messages and glossy peripheral devices. With a highly apt cast and crew the elements very quickly fall into place: a bunch of strong and realistic performances,

even handed direction and a skilful lens comprised of sharp and unobtrusive photography. The moments in which Connolly and Perlman tug at the hearts and identities of wandering strangers are perhaps their most impressionable: a desperate, broken man tears himself apart at the prospect of abandoning a stray dog, a chatty hospital patient pleads for some food and a friend, and Eddie's introverted father silently aches from undefined depression. Three Dollars even comes equipped with a "don't do it!" moment of nail-chewing movie anxiousness, in which Eddie stops to assist a vertically challenged old lady while running late to a job interview. Images of a struggling family unit are close-up and personal -- the dialogue between Eddie and Tanya feels a little too spiffy and stagy for low-key domestic chatter, but passable nonetheless -- and the film's latter suggestions towards homelessness and plebeian existence add a resonant sense of perspective to the production's overall tone and meaning. Connolly's steadily moving pace gently unravels layers of his characters and the standard of acting in Three Dollars is kept at admirable benchmark levels by Wenham, who provides a strong and malleable anchor and broadly takes the story onto his shoulders, delivering a quietly expressive and affecting performance that continues to humanise the film even as it advocates a running depiction of robotic modern ideology. Connolly also evokes a sense of sadness in the way things change, how external factors can distance and separate relationships and how in today's world of fierce legalities and heartless professionalism personal integrity fights against a constantly manifesting tide of compromising values and crooked infrastructure.

theblurb.com.au A few dollars more Our rating: * * * *

TV and radio current affairs programs seem to be filled with economic news and commentary. The price of oil, global markets, the Dow Jones, current account deficits, rising and falling dollars and GDP figures all make fodder for politicians and economic prognosticators. But its all a bit esoteric, high-minded talk that means little to our daily lives. For director Bob Connolly and writer Elliot Perlman, that wasnt good enough; so their new film Three Dollars makes the impact of all that economic theory only too real. Connolly and Perlman have created an insightful and gripping film about the way in which modern economics affects one individual - Eddie Harnovey, played superbly by David Wenham. As Eddie says at one point, he and his family (like many Australians) live in the ever-diminishing margin between their mortgage and their incomes. What Three Dollars does is to look at what happens when that margin becomes too small. On another level, this is a tale about the Australian spirit; about never giving up hope and about how far our idea of a fair go for all has been debased. This is a contemporary snapshot of our nation, a place where even those considered middle-class are at risk, and where the line between success and ruin can be a very thin one indeed. But its also a place where a helping hand is rarely refused, and where you can always count on your real mates. Its also the story of one man, a journey through an ordinary life turned upside down by extraordinary events. When we first meet Eddie, he seems to have it all - a beautiful wife Tanya (Frances OConnor) and daughter (Joanna HuntProkhovnic), a solid job as a chemical engineer for a government department, a nice house in the suburbs. The film jumps between Eddies past life, including his attraction to his childhood friend Amanda (Sarah Wynter); and his handling of an investigation into possible chemical contamination of a site earmarked for a future residential development. When his past and his present collide however, the result is disastrous. Three Dollars is a challenging film in many ways. It asks its audience to accept a non-linear, and in some ways, non-narrative structure; to concentrate less on story than on character and to work through a thicket of themes and ideas on our way to its final resolution. At times, it wanders a little, while at others it tends to

stretch credibility somewhat; but at its heart, this is a film that deserves acknowledgment for taking on such complex subject-matter. Connolly peppers his film with great images. From the dreary gray-walled offices where Eddie works to the golden fields surrounding the development site; from the homey domesticity of the familys house to the plastic formality of shopping centre. He borrows from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock (North by Northwest) and Curtis Hanson (Wonder Boys), yet those scenes never feel cheap or stolen because he manages to inject them with a sensibility all their own. As the portrait of one persons life, the central performance is crucial, and David Wenham doesnt disappoint. Weve all known for some time now that Wenham is one of the most versatile actors this country has ever produced, so it should come as no great surprise that he gives a brilliant performance as Eddie. While Hollywood fare like Van Helsing might pay the bills, this is the kind of part Wenham was born to play. Frances OConnor is also exquisite as Tanya; although I did have a little trouble relating to Sarah Wynter as the object of Eddies obsession. Three Dollars is a minor breakthrough for the Australian film industry. Its a film about real people facing real problems; and it tells its story in an accessible, sensible way. With terrific performances to support it, this is the kind of film that can put Australia back on the international film map. David Edwards

THE NEWCASTLE HERALD

April 22, 2005 THREE DOLLARS A bankable performance
THIS quiet rumination on a family man in crisis floats along ever so gently on David Wenham's still-waters-run-deep charisma. Dry laidback charm has become Wenham's trademark in his popular television outings as SeaChange's Diver Dan and, more recently, Murray Whelan - the political troubleshooter from the Shane Maloney novels. Here, Wenham is perfectly cast as an everyday bloke forced to take stock of his life when he loses his job. We meet Eddie, a chemical engineer in the public service, as he's clearing out his desk. From flashback to flashback, and with Wenham's lilting voice-over talking us through his thoughts, we trace how Eddie's life has, slowly and almost imperceptibly, fallen apart - to the point where he is standing in front of an ATM with just $3 in his savings account. Where to now for Eddie, wife Tanya (Frances O'Connor) and daughter Abby (Joanna HuntProkhovnik)? Granted, the story of a middle-class bloke trying to keep it all together for his family sounds like a pretty slender, and probably even unappetising, subject matter for a movie. For many it will sound too much like what they did yesterday and what they will be doing today. But if you're in a contemplative mood and have two hours to spare for some thoughtful observations on the contemporary human condition there's plenty to savour here. Nice, too, to see Sarah Wynter in what might have been her natural element had she not gone off and become a Hollywood star, She's suitably gorgeous and radiant as Eddie's childhood sweetheart but it's her character's sweetly awkward restaurant confessions over dinner with Wenham that suggest a delicate skill we've not seen from her before.