Danny Deckchair (2003)

reviewed by
Jon Popick


PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com

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Danny Deckchair is a slightly non-fictional Aussie import from storyboard

artist-turned director Jeff Balsmeyer. Rhys Ifans (Once Upon a Time in the

Midlands) stars as the titular Danny, a Sydney dreamer who cooks up crazy

ideas - like human slingshots and pancake breakfasts - only to have them

shot down by his attention-junkie girlfriend, Trudy (Justine Clarke). When

Trudy puts the kibosh on Danny's camping trip, he does what any

self-respecting Welsh-playing-Australian man would do: Take a bunch of

helium balloons, tie them to a deckchair, and take off into the ether.

Danny eventually crashes in the backyard of Glenda Lake (The Lord of the

Rings' Miranda Otto, who seems much better than this), a small town

meter-maid hovering somewhere near the brink of Old Maid-dom because she's

been alone (read: hasn't gotten laid) for much of her adult life. With

fun-loving men falling out of the sky, who needs internet dating?

Deckchair, actually gets worse after the lame setup, dropping Danny into

both the kind of quirky small town that will make you stand up and shout for

Kirk Gleason and Sookie St. James; and the type of broad situation comedy

that should have fans of Everybody Loves Raymond lined up around the block.

This is the kind of film that might play well at a festival full of weary

people who have spent day after day hip-deep in tragedy and drama (Deckchair

closed the Toronto International Film Festival last September), but in the

light of day, it's the kind of movie you'd go Coyote Ugly on in order to get

away from.
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