It’s been a long time between Working Dog having a film on the big screen and after viewing Any Questions For Ben? all I can say is it was certainly worth the wait. This is what a romantic comedy (or should that be romantic drama) should be like! Three dimensional characters (and believable), a good storyline and real enough that you know it hasn’t just been dreamed up by some screenwriter that has read too many Mills & Boon novels.
Ben (Josh Lawson – Crave, TV’S House Of Lies) seems to have everything you could ever dream of. His friends Nick (Daniel Henshall – Snowtown, Bars And Tone) and Andy (Christian Clark – Scumbus, TV’S Home & Away) watch on enviously as he drifts from dream girl to dream girl while doing a job they feel most would kill for. But it takes an embarrassing incident in front of a bunch of school kids for Ben to realise his job isn’t that interesting and worse still he never seems to be able to see anything through… a point that another friend, Emily (Felicity Ward – TV’S Laid & Sleuth 101) is only too happy to point out. Ben’s confusion is only made greater when he meets Alex (Rachael Tayor – The Darkest Hour, Red Dog).
Director Rob Sitch (The Dish, The Castle) along with his fellow Working Dog co-workers Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner have yet again done what they have been doing since The Late Show and that is create a near-perfect script that has you laughing all along. Yet like The Castle they also remember that you have to feel for these characters. At a first glance Ben might be an unlikable character, but by the end of the film you really are hoping he can pull his life together and get the girl.
The big winners with Any Questions For Ben? are Josh Lawson and the City Of Melbourne itself. Sitch has captured Melbourne in a way that no other filmmaker ever has. He showcases the fact it is a cosmopolitan heaven and as a result it equals London and New York on the big screen. Meanwhile, the screen allows Lawson to prove what fans of The Librarians have known for a long time – that he is one of Australia’s most genuine and best performing comedic actors.
Lawson is well supported by Felicity Ward and Daniel Henshall who also show that they have more strings in their bow. Ward really steps up from her Ronnie Johns Half Hour days and shows that she belongs on the big screen while Henshall backs up his fine performance in Snowtown with a worthy comedic performance.
If you’re looking for a fluffy romantic comedy you won’t find it here. Instead Any Questions For Ben overcomes a slow start to become a well written romantic drama that shows the rest of the world just how this genre should be done.
Year: 2012
Director: Rob Sitch
Stars: Josh Lawson, Rachael Tayor, Felicity Ward, Daniel Henshall, Christian Clark
Classification: M
Runtime: 114 mins
Rating6: 