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Critical Review and Bibliography

Three Dollars
by Lim Jian Yi, Daniel

Film Information
Australian release date              - 21^st April 2005
Genre                                       - Drama
Classification                            - M 15++

Distributors                              - Dendy Films

Language                                 - English

Country                                    - Australia

Director                                   - Robert Connolly

Producer                                  - John Maynard

Co Producer                            - Domenico Procacci

Screenplay                               - Robert Connolly and Elliot Perlman

Cinematography                       - Triston Milani ACS

Music                                       - Alexandre Desplat

Film Editor                               - Nick Meyers

Based on the novel by Elliot Perlman

Cast

David Wenham                         - Eddie

Sarah Wynter                            - Amanda

Nico Billeam                             - Tiny

Christopher Bunworth               - Chamberlain

David Robert                            - Gerard

Frances O'Connor                    - Tanya

Joanna Hunt Prokhovnik            - Abby

Craig Madden                          - Gang Member #1

Adam Cooper                          - Gang Member #2

Deryk Lock                              - Gang Member #3

Brent Lister                              - Gang Member #4

Interview

The interviews with Robert Connolly, the director, and David Wenham and Sarah Wynter, the cast can be found in the DVD extras features. The interview was about how and why the director did the movie, which is based on the novel by Elliot Perlman, and how the actor and actress feel about their cast and how they respond to it.

Genre

This film is classified as drama or melodrama, because it is a character driven film, and the plot and action emphasized in comparison. Drama usually teaches people or allows the audience to learn through interactions about daily life, it allows audience to explore people and things they encounter and allows the audience to feel about the situation or the film. This film can be categorized as melodrama too because throughout the film, there was music to emphasize on the situation or the feeling of Eddie. 

Review

Three dollars is a story about Eddie, a chemical engineer, whose world revolves around the three women in his life: his brilliant wife Tanya, a passionate academic, their six year old daughter, Abby, who heightens the stakes on every decision Eddie makes, and his childhood beautiful sweetheart, Amanda, who appears in his life only a few times, magically every nine and a half years, once when young, once in university and a week before Eddie was going to get married to Tanya.

 

This film tells the story of a good man being tested in terms of his daily issues, as a husband, a father and ethnic stands at work. Every decision he makes will bring consequences and results in different ending. Eddie is always trying to help other people whenever he can, even when he is in a tight situation, for example, Eddie went to buy aspirin for a old lady that was having headache despite that he was late for his interview for a new job.

The film starts with Eddie got sacked from his work, and then flash back to where everything was going on well for him. Throughout the film, there was a lot of flash back to his childhood and flash back to his early days before his marriage. Eddie was sacked because the company he works for claims to be reconstructing, in Australia, it is legally fraught to sack one person but to sack many at one time is legally painless.

There are parts in the movie where it constantly embeds the title 'three dollars', for example when Eddie met Amanda in the university cafeteria, the food Eddie bought costs three dollars, and when Abby was admitted to the hospital, there was a patient who gave Eddie three dollars to get him some food, and lastly when Eddie was checking his account balance, there was only three dollars. 

The director wants to portrait a kind of originality of reality in the film, which is why the homeless people in the film are not actors or actresses but they are all from refugee camp for the homeless. These are people that stayed behind after their daily lunch to participate in the film for some extra cash. The director did not want to use actors or actresses as he wants he audience to really feel and experience the homeless people. 

An interesting part in the film is when Nick, the homeless guy Eddie met, helped him to get some food home by crook, they went around looking for supermarket plastic bag in rubbish bins, and mold garlic bread from the back alley to complaint about it and get refund or in exchange for real eatable food. Nick was shock when Eddie asked for two barbeque chickens in return as a compliment for the moth garlic bread. This scene also shows how desperate was Eddie at that point when he was broke and lost his job. 

This film shows some Australian in it through the accent, the aboriginal and some small scenes. There is a scene in the beginning where the camera shows the aboriginal person playing some kind of instrument like the banjo, and throughout the film, there was some heavy Australian accent especially with Eddie's boss. There are certain scenes in the film where Australian land was shown when Eddie was in the field doing his fieldwork. There was also a scene in the hospital when the patient gave three dollars; the camera had a close up on the money in his hand that clearly shows the location of the film through Australia currency. This film also shows the Australian lifestyle, how many people can survive if they are being layoff for corporate reasons? not many Australians have enough to survive and welfare takes sometime to process, this film really makes people sit and think of things that might just happen to them.

Critical Uptake
There was not much reviews about three dollars because it was a new movie, some review compliment it for its emotional depth, some against it because it was too slow and the film drags. Many says its better than the book, Three Dollars is the kind of film that shows daily reality.

Three dollars won 4 awards and got nominated for a few, including
-AFI Award                                          Robert Connolly
                                                             Elliot Perlman
-Young Actor's Award                          Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik
-FCCA Award                                      Robert Connolly
                                                              Elliot Perlman
-Prize of the Ecumenical Jury                  Robert Connolly
 Special Mention

Nominated
-Nominated AFI Award Best Lead Actress
Frances O'Connor

-Best Original Music Score
Alan John

-Best Production Design
Luigi Pittorino

-Best Supporting Actor
Robert Menzies
 

Three Dollars got a IMDP ratings of 6.3/10
 

Prior Work
Producer
Romulus, My Father (2006) (filming) (executive producer) (producer)

The Monkey's Mask (2000) (producer)
... aka Cercle intime (France)
... aka Maschera di scimmia, La (Italy)
... aka Poetry, Sex (Japan: English title)

The Boys (1998) (producer)

Roses Are Red (1995) (producer)

All Men Are Liars (1995) (associate producer)

Director
Three Dollars (2005)

The Bank (2001)

Writer-Filmography
Three Dollars (2005) (screenplay)

The Bank (2001)

Miscellaneous Crew - filmography
Better Than Sex (2000) (consultant)
... aka Better Than Sex (France)
 

Relation to Australia as a Medium Size National Cinema
Films like this is important for Australia because it tells the reality and shows what does everyday people faces in their life even if they were honest and hardworking. The film revolves around one person with his work, his family, his life, all this reflects on Australians with their everyday life, not every Australian can support their family and life if they looses their job. This film is important for people to realize that they are not the only one that faces problem and every problem there is always a solution or choices that can be found and made which will bring different consequences and result. 

Bibliography
Australian Online Movie Magazine
http://www.infilm.com.au/reviews/threedollars.htm

ABC-At The Movies
http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1348659.htm

IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175352/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0391493/awards