Frank Gallacher Movies

Twenty-two-year-old Tommy Matisse (Dan Spielman) is a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London who dreams of writing an opera that will speak truth in the chaos of the contemporary world. Consumed by his unrelenting search for inspiration and his powerful love for girlfriend Alysse (Leeanna Walsman), Tommy remains deaf to the desperate cries of his younger sister Emma (Abbie Cornish). When Emma and Alysse go out for a night of partying and Emma suffers a fatal overdose, Alysse's burden of guilt becomes too weighty to bear and she soon seeks to tell Tommy the truth about his sister's death. Subsequently torn apart by Tommy's anger and Alyssa's sorrow, the pair both embark on solitary journeys that find Tommy making a name for himself in the Melbourne club scene, and self-destructive Alyssa falling under the drug-addled influence of powerful music producer and nightclub owner Hector Lee (Andrew Lee). Though Tommy and Alyssa are later reunited when their paths intersect at the club where Tommy is DJ'ing, the resulting rage of jealous Hector threatens to spell tragedy for all involved. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding, My Best Friend's Wedding) helms this live-action retelling of J.M. Barrie's classic children's play Peter Pan. Starring Jeremy Sumpter (Frailty) in the title role, the film follows the adventures of the Darling children, Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), John (Harry Newell), and Michael (Freddie Popplewell), as they are visited by the boy who never grows up and whisked away to Neverland, where they encounter The Lost Boys, Tinker Bell (Ludivine Sagnier), and the evil Captain Hook (Jason Isaacs). ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Directed by Craig Lahiff, Black and White is a story about bigotry, social injustice, and a real-life murder trial that made Australian headlines in the late '50s. On a December afternoon in 1958, the body of a nine-year-old white girl is discovered in a cave off the coast of Southern Australia. Detective Paul Turner (Roy Billing) quickly arrests a half-aboriginal fair-worker named Max Stuart (David Ngoombujarra), who signs a confession. However, being that Max is illiterate, the legitimacy of the confession is contested by his legal aid representatives, David O'Sullivan (Robert Carlyle) and Helen Devaney (Kerry Fox). Despite the questionable confession, Max is found guilty by the all-white, all-male jury, and sentenced to be hanged. O'Sullivan lodges a series of appeals, but no conclusive evidence of Max's guilt or innocence has been found to this day. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Coma meets Heathers in this Australian black comedy about crime, revenge, and kidney thieves. Brad (Matt Day) and Gregor (Jason Barry) are eager med students struggling to make ends meet. Thanks to government cutbacks, they are forced to share a cockroach-infested one-bedroom apartment, which they rent from their odious landlord (Reg Evans), and they're even forced to share the same bed (an inflatable sex doll in a nurse's uniform divides the mattress and reasserts their nervous heterosexuality). Their living situation is made even worse by their obnoxious neighbors; one guy who lives upstairs (Robert Carlton) engages in loud parties and noisy lovemaking at all hours of the night while another guy's car alarm constantly goes off. Unable to sleep or eat, much less study, the two are on the brink of giving up their studies. To make matters even worse, they are up to their stethoscopes in debt to gangster/western-enthusiast George Roy Rogers (Chris Haywood). Though his penchant for cheesy western memorabilia and silly hats seems a bit daft, he is deadly serious about collecting, and his two muscle-bound thugs Dale and Trigger are hell-bent on enforcing the debt. Brad and Gregor's luck changes when they learn of a noted surgeon, Marcus Browning (Rod Mullinar), who is willing to pay top dollar for organs, just before a sharply-dressed yuppie takes a flying leap and splatter-lands at their feet. Thinking quickly, Brad yanks out a kidney, crams it in an ice cream carton, and carries it over to Browning. Counting their cash, they realize that they have happened upon a neat little way of getting out of the red. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Alex Proyas (The Crow) directed this noir-styled futuristic thriller, scripted by Proyas, Lem Dobbs (Kafka), and David S. Goyer (The Puppet Masters). Separated from his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), amnesiac John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to learn he is wanted for a series of brutal killings -- but he can't remember if he did or didn't commit these murders. Indeed, most of his memories have completely vanished, and he becomes the focus of interest for both mad genius Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) and sympathetic detective Frank Bumstead (William Hurt). Attempting to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity, Murdoch encounters a group of ominous beings known as the Strangers, shadow-like figures who have a collective memory and possess the ability to stop time and alter physical reality through a process called The Tuning. Focusing their minds, they are able to change the size and shape of the material world. Murdoch manages to stay a step ahead of his adversaries as he slowly jigsaws together the puzzle of his past-bittersweet memories of his childhood, his love for Emma, and the key to the murders -- while following a labyrinth leading to the Strangers' Underworld, a set inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Rufus Sewell commented on the Underworld: "When Alex first sent me the sketches for that set, I was more excited than I had been when I read the script. The Underworld was truly remarkable -- a little bit scary, very thrilling, and full of hundreds of bald people." At the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, where 50 sets were built, three months were spent constructing the set for the Underworld, the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. The production design by George Liddle (Rapa Nui) and Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Space: Above and Beyond) is a composite of different styles and eras, combining the look of 1940s Manhattan with German Expressionism. The music is by Trevor Jones (G.I. Jane). The film's dedication reads: "In Memory of Dennis Potter with gratitude and admiration." ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

An American woman turns an Australian home upside down in this Australian picture. Dallas Adair came to Australia from L.A. as a golf course consultant. En route she meets Charlie Sommers, the son of one of her sponsors, Stephen Sommers. After their plane almost crashes, the two become friends. Dallas is invited to stay at the Sommers' home. There she meets the rest of the family Rosalind, frustrated wife of Stephen and Rastus, an intelligent teenager with a passionate belief in UFO's. Dallas immediately begins seducing every member in the family except Rastus, who despises Dallas. The sex scenes are more implied than explicit. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This drama concerns a small period in the life of its central figure, Alan Marshall (Alexander Outhred), a young man living in rural Australia in 1910, who was crippled by polio years before. Because he hasn't the strength or coordination to perform most chores and enter fully into the life of his family and friends, much that he experiences comes to him vicariously. In the story, he witnesses many dramatic events happening to others. Several of them concern the romantic trials and tribulations of the women and men he knows. However, the story which concerns him the most is somewhat sad: despite the best efforts of his father, Alan is unable to ride a horse. The screenplay of the movie is based on a collection of Marshall's autobiographical stories. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

When a pay cut sends Australian dock workers on strike, a group of Italian immigrants are hired to take their place, causing much resentment and hatred on both sides. However, when an Italian woman and an Australian man start up a passionate affair, they discover that they must work to preserve their relationship and stay true to their fellow countrymen. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

In a somewhat far-fetched premise (not uncommon to the genre), this action film has some Australians (including soldiers) joining up with Asian forces, all backed by American money, ready to take over Surfers Paradise, a resort and retirement area on the Gold Coast of Queensland. They are not interested in good surf or securing an ideal retirement home, they just want the off-shore petroleum rights and inland uranium deposits. Right into their scheme walks Michael Stacey (Ray Barrett), a one-time policeman who left the force because of an alcohol problem and now has to make money as a private eye. While he is looking for the missing daughter of an old friend, now in politics, he runs into the usual private-eye characters: the barmaid who is willing to spend some quality time with him, the corpse that shows up in his hotel room, and the former buddies who turn against his investigation. Two of his friends are fronting the coalition of take-over forces and invite Stacey to join them in their conspiracy. Now the detective has to make up his mind about where all this is going, and if he wants to avoid any unhealthy alliances, how can he do that and stay physically intact? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi