I saw Last Cab to Darwin last week and I’ve been thinking about different aspects of it ever since.
It really affected me. I always respond to movies much more which have a bit of philosophy, a bit of life wisdom that makes you re-evaluate how you live your own life, woven into the storyline, like Terminator 2.
Based on a true story, it’s about Broken Hill taxi-driver Rex McRae who’s in his 60s, lives alone with his dog, and is told he’s got stomach cancer and has only three months to live. He hears that the Northern Territory has changed its laws to allow euthanasia, and having a deep dread of hospitals, decides on a road trip to Darwin to take control of his demise.
The story is of his road trip, who he meets, how he processes his relationships and how he deals with his impending end.
On paper it’s about euthanasia, but it’s essentially a comedy about learning to let go when you’re told your time is near, about finding kindness and companionship where you can.
The emotional connections in this movie run deep. He keeps representing himself to people he meets as totally alone in the world, but we have an inkling from the early scenes how important his neighbour Polly and his mates at the pub are to him, even if he doesn’t realise this initially.
The issue of family and what it is and who it might constitute is a theme throughout. His delightful, apparently informal relationship with his Aboriginal neighbour Polly is a central thread as is another relationship, with Tilly. Rex picks up Tilly, a gorgeous young bloke who looks like an Aboriginal Michael Hutchence, after Tilly fixes his windscreen at an outback outpost. Tilly needs a lift back to Oodnadatta and accepts that as part payment.
Mark Coles Smith who plays Tilly almost stole the movie, he’s so good. His very lovable larrikin character was very similar to Crocodile Dundee in cheeky humour. There’s a fabulous scene where he gives an impromptu performance for a busload of tourists at an outback pub which had the whole cinema laughing out loud.
In the towns they pass through, Tilly meets up with local Aboriginal mobs, telling Rex the name of each mob as he goes to seek them out.
It made a big impact on me — the geographically massive area that his ‘family’ is spread over. He has family everywhere. Every town they went into there was someone he knew and who would look after him. It was a revelation to me, how comforting that would be, and gave me a strong sense that the Aboriginal culture is far more adapted to the outback than white culture, if this is indeed an accurate representation of it.
We don’t get much insight into Rex’s thought processes and feelings, as he is a man of very few words, but like so many men, we have to garner what’s going on internally from his actions. There’s a couple of scenes where he goes to get his gun and you’re really not sure what he’s about to do until you see it.
This is where the casting of Michael Caton as Rex is so clever. Everybody knows and loves him from The Castle. His character Darryl Kerrigan is now part of Australian folklore, with quotes from the movie now part of our culture. So though Rex McCrae is a grumpy old bugger, the little signs of humanity, strong ethics, guts and caring he displays, you can’t help but care deeply what happens to him.
The end is surprising, and is a bit different to the real Rex (Max Bell, who made his trip to the NT in 1999) but it had a quote from Michael Caton which might become as entrenched in our culture as ‘‘that’s going straight the pool room’’. He’s given a beer and is asked ‘‘you can’t have that, can you?’’ and he says ‘‘no — I just want to hold it’’.
Jeremy-Sims-directed Last Cab to Darwin has just been accepted into the Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently showing at the Richmond Regent.
