听 An enjoyably low-key portrayal of life in a small Australian town, "Mullet" is a film whose success derives from its careful attention to characterization and mood.
Eddie (Mendelsohn), better known as Mullet, returns home to the New South Wales backwater of Coollawarra, which he unexpectedly left three years earlier. There were rumours that he was playing rugby league in Sydney, or that he was working in Hollywood for an English paper, but the truth is more prosaic.
While he was gone, his former girlfriend Tully (Porter) married his policeman brother Pete (Gilbert) but his Mum (McQuade) and Dad (Barry) are still squabbling. Nobody seems that delighted to see Eddie, not even his parents. Undeterred, he sets up home in a caravan, starts catching mullet to sell at the fish market, and tries to explain why he's come back.
Narrated by the barmaid-cum-writer Kay (McClory), it's laced with a stoical Ocker humour - knocked off his barstool and onto the ground by his feisty sister, Mullet simply says "You stupid cow, Robbie, I could've split my beer." Yet beneath the jocular exchanges and matey bravado, writer-director David Caesar ("Idiot Box") uncovers the loneliness and the suffering of characters who are struggling to articulate their feelings.
Robert Humphreys's widescreen cinematography has some lyrical flourishes, Paul Healy's guitar score adds a layer of melancholy, and the laconic performances demonstrate the power of understatement. A film that conveys much more than what is said, and not a real mullet in sight.听
