Sport may be an Australian obsession, but that fanaticism has rarely transitioned from the field to the screen. Filmmakers have only infrequently immortalised the nation’s preferred past-times cinematically, with representations of AFL (The Club, Australian Rules), rugby league (The Final Winter, Footy Legends), surfing (Newcastle) and lawn bowls (Crackerjack) few and far between. Cricket is conspicuous in its absence from the list, an omission director Boyd Hicklin sought to correct. His debut feature, Save Your Legs!, earns the honour of Australia’s first movie dedicated to the game that has shaped many a local summer.
A fictionalised version of Hicklin’s 2005 documentary of the same name, Save Your Legs! catapults middling suburban team the Abbotsford Anglers into the big league. Here that journey is twofold: the film introduces the real-life Melbourne club to the masses, and also chronicles their 2001 tour of India in dramatised form. As the team travels from the suburbs to the subcontinent, fame and fortune beckon, or so they believe; simultaneously, best mates Teddy (Stephen Curry, The Cup), Stav (Damon Gameau, Balibo) and Rick (Brendan Cowell, I Love You Too) find their friendships tested.
The spirited cast prove the film’s saving grace, particularly Curry in the lead. Simultaneously awkward and affable, he provides an agreeable focal point, ensuring Teddy’s multiple quests – to savour his passion, chase a childhood dream, find love, and ultimately accept change – are amiable and relatable. Though Gameau and Cowell are cast as stereotypically rowdy supports, each plays their part with obvious enthusiasm. David Lyons (Safe Haven) and Brenton Thwaites (TV’s Home and Away) are given little to do as fellow teammates, but have their moments.
Less successful is the culture clash that Cowell – as the film’s writer as well as co-star – mines as a source of humour. While the original documentary was steeped in embarrassing tales from the team’s trip, the feature blows every potentially comic situation out of proportion, with its exaggeration merely emphasising the reliance upon cliché and convention. Jokes about the food and weather are standard – in their inclusion and delivery. A Bollywood dance sequence canvasses the colour and movement of the locale, but still feels formulaic and cursory.
Indeed, the entire production feels perfunctory, albeit well-meaning. From Mark Wareham’s (The Kings of Mykonos) naturalistic cinematography to the few but frenetic on-screen depictions of the sport in question, Save Your Legs! tries hard but just can’t secure a polished outcome – a fate fittingly shared by most amateur sporting teams.
Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
Save Your Legs!
Director: Boyd Hicklin
Australia, 2012, 92 min
Now showing in cinemas
Distributor: Madman
Rated M
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