Long Weekend (2008)   Starring: Jim Caviezel and Claudia Karvan Showbox Home Entertainment RRP: £17.99 SBX426 Certificate: 15 Available 08 February 2010

A separated married couple embark on a weekend away together in an attempt to patch up their differences. Travelling to a remote beach on Australia's North coast, they become hopelessly lost overnight en route. Waking the following morning in the car, they fortuitously discover they are only a stone's throw from their intended destination. Initially an idyllic setting, the woman soon grows bored, while the man takes advantage of the surf, fishing and hunting. However, they are disrespecting their surroundings, discarding litter, leaving broken bottles in the water, cutting down live trees for fire wood, running over a kangaroo and indiscriminately shooting the wildlife - including a sea cow. When a few things start to go wrong and their relationship deteriorates even further, the woman tries to leave whilst the man rebels. However, it appears that Nature itself is rebelling against their actions, pushing them to the very edge of sanity...

I don't know about "Long Weekend", but it certainly seemed like an inordinately long film. I felt like perhaps I had committed some terrible act in life and was now being tortured and made to suffer by watching this film as recompense. This modern remake is no better or worse than the original 1978 version, which I reviewed back in early 2006. Not that much happens during the entire running time, apart from the estranged couple bickering, shouting, shouting and bickering. Did I mention that they argue a lot? If I wanted all that I would have turned in to an episode of Eastenders.

I found myself gleefully distracted by the dog gallivanting on the beach... Which reminds me of the concluding scenes when the car is driven into a tree and the man, Peter, sprints through the undergrowth like his tail is on fire. The dog is left behind, simply sitting obediently on the passenger seat, when it would realistically be doing its nut trying to get out. Has the only thing in the film worth looking at been forgotten by the director and scriptwriter alike? The mysteriously moving dead sea cow might be intriguing if the rest of the film wasn't so crushingly boring.

For those with a better constitution than me, this two-disc set contains a Director's Production Diary, an Interview Gallery, a Deleted Scene, a Making of Featurette and Trailer. Not for me.

2

Ty Power