MOVIE: The Sapphires

The Sapphires: an old story line with an interesting twist.  This movie, based upon real events, is about three sisters and a cousin who form a quartet.  The timeline for most of the story is 1968.  The place is Australia.  The twist lies not just with the fact that these are talented Aboriginal women but also in the presentation of blatant racism and the evil treatment of the Aborigine people within the context of an overall feel good movie about individuals overcoming Society’s plans for them.  The movie opens approximately ten years earlier with the girls performing for friends and family.  We later learn that at this performance the cousin, Kay (Shari Sebbens), was separated from her family by agents of the government to be raised as “white” due to her light skin color.  After the opening sequence, the sisters are in an Australian outback town to perform at a singing contest.  Although the sisters are clearly the star performers, they are ignored and a white girl who barely can sing is pronounced the winner.   At the contest, they meet Dave, the emcee who has alcohol issues.  One of the sisters shows Dave a Variety-type announcement regarding a tryout for singers in Vietnam.  Of course, the sisters get the gig and most of the second half of the movie takes place in Vietnam with a terrific assortment of ‘60s songs.  Pre-Dave, the sisters sing Country.  Dave introduces them to Soul music with a great line about how Country music embraces misfortune while Soul defiantly insists on hope in the face of misery.  Prior to the audition, the sisters reconnect with Kay, who was living “white” but shamed by Gail (Deborah Mailman), the oldest of the sisters, to rejoin the group.  Chris O’Dowd is excellent as Dave and is the only actor I recognized.  Julie, played by Jessica Mauboy, has the best voice.  Miranda Tapsell plays the fourth sister.  Each of the four women is a distinct character and the interactions among them are quite real.  The contrast with what was happening in America on the race issue is presented with short historical videos (King’s march speech, Ali’s defiance, RFK announcing King’s death), which are integrated into the storyline.  Although the war and racism issues may make the film sound heavy, it is, as I noted in the beginning of this commentary, mostly a feel good movie with a lot of good sounds.  The movie is based upon a play written by the son of one of the sisters.  The director is Wayne Blair and he pulls off the difficult task of presenting serious social issues while entertaining us.   With great music, some funny scenes, primarily involving O’Dowd, and very credible performances, you will have a fun 98 minutes watching this movie.