Kangaroo (PG)

Channel 6 weatherman Chris Masterman dreams of promotion on the award-winning breakfast show, Rise And Shine Australia. A viral video with a baby dolphin goes wrong and Chris loses his job. He drives from Sydney to Broome in a classic red corvette and hits a kangaroo, unintentionally orphaning a baby joey nestled in the mother's pouch. Twelve-year-old Indigenous Australian girl Charlie takes advantage of the situation to help Chris care for the joey.

LondonNet Film Review

Kangaroo (PG) Film Review from LondonNet

It’s never too late to grow up and find yourself in an overly sentimental fish-out-of-water comedy directed by Kate Woods, which trades unabashedly on the cuteness of one of Australia’s indigenous creatures. Based on the true story of Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns and his wife Tahnee, who have nursed over 1,000 orphaned joeys with the help of volunteer wildlife carers, Kangaroo bounds excitedly from one predictable story beat to the next but should enthral family audiences hungry for wholesome and heart-warming fare…

Channel 6 weatherman Chris Masterman (Ryan Corr) dreams of promotion on the award-winning breakfast show, Rise And Shine Australia. To impress his producer Liz (Brooke Satchwell) and station chief Ted (Rob Carlton), Chris plays the hero on camera to ‘rescue’ a stranded baby dolphin in the waters off Bondi Beach but his viral moment takes an unexpectedly tragic twist. He loses his job and drives from Sydney to Broome in a classic red corvette for a new role in front of the camera. Passing through the town of Silver Gum outside Alice Springs (Mparntwe), Chris is distracted from watching the road and hits a kangaroo, unintentionally orphaning a baby joey nestled in the mother’s pouch. “For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast/And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed,” poetically laments Silver Gum resident Murray (Roy Billing), quoting Lord Byron, when he learns about Chris killing more innocent wildlife.

Twelve-year-old Indigenous Australian girl Charlie (Lily Whiteley), who loves to care for stricken kangaroos against the wishes of her mother (Deborah Mailman), takes advantage of the situation. She offers to help Chris care for the joey, christened Roger, while the weatherman takes up temporary residence in her grandparents’ so-called guest house. Stripped of home comforts, Chris slowly learns to care for someone other than himself and his unlikely friendship with Charlie helps the girl come to terms with the loss of her father and solidify new friendships in Silver Gum.

Shot on location in the Outback, Kangaroo is a quintessentially Australian adventure, which mines earthy humour from repeated clashes between Chris’s big city expectations (requesting Icelandic sparkling to quench his thirst) and the unpretentious, homespun hospitality of Silver Gum’s close-knit community. To quote a dearly departed soap opera’s theme tune, good neighbours become good friends in Harry Cripps’ screenplay and the tugging of heartstrings is apparent.

Corr is a likable hero, in desperate need of a personality overhaul, and co-star Whiteley knows how to plumb the sadness swimming behind her character’s eyes. Real rescue joeys from the Barns’ sanctuary bring unpredictable energy to their scenes while a digitally augmented larger incarnation of Roger bounds into view on cue in a cliche-peppered and dewy-eyed final act.

– Sarah Lee