Terry Serio Movies

A former drug-addict in her early thirties attempts to put her shady past to rest while paving the way for a brighter future in director Rowan Woods' tale of love, trust, and redemption in modern-day Australia. Tracy Heart (Cate Blanchett) hasn't lived her 32 years so much as she has simply survived them. Ravaged by the drug-addiction and determined to redeem herself in the eyes of her overworked single-mother Janelle (Noni Hazelhurst), Tracy makes a personal vow to open her own business and turn her life around before it's too late and life has passed her by. Tracy's plan is complicated, however, when three men from her past reappear with their own plans for the future. In addition to the troubling re-appearance of her ex-boyfriend Jonny (Dustin Nguyen), her criminal-minded brother Ray (Martin Henderson) seems hell-bent on making a name for himself in the underworld, and the emotional demands of troubled family friend and ex-football star Lionel Dawson (Hugo Weaving) have left the emotionally vulnerable Tracy shaken and confused. When Tracy's modest dreams of a happy life catch the attention of feared criminal kingpin Bradley "The Jockey" Thompson (Sam Neill), she is forced to place her fragile trust in the hands of her skeptical mother and take one last trip into the past to confront her greatest fear.

~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This romantic, adventurous Australian thriller is set in the continent's Red Center. There Tom McGregor and his sister Susan work their lonely desert gas station. He and Susan are first seen racing along a desert road towards the horizon. Soon afterward, he is seen walking alone towards the seemingly abandoned filling station. During the course of the film, many interesting characters happen by, including the girl friend of a diamond thief on the lam. His car breaks down and he sends her to the station for assistance. Once there, she finds herself falling in love with Tom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The trial of three men in the bombing of a Hilton Hotel in Sidney in 1978 serves as the general focus for this docudrama on the nature of prejudice and justice. After the hotel bombing, authorities suggested that non-Indian members of a Hindu sect called Ananda Marga (path of bliss) had done the deed -- which killed a few people, including a policeman, but did not harm any of the Commonwealth Nations' delegates at the hotel at the time. About a year later, a paid police informant accused three members of the evangelical Hindu sect of making a bomb to kill a right-wing politico. The police arrested the men, a trial ensued with much conflicting evidence, and the trio was acquitted because of a hung jury. As noted at the end of the movie, in a second trial six months later, the men were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Several noted Australian actors such as Tony Barry, Max Cullen, Chris Haywood, and Richard Moir) were cast as the attorneys, defendants, and detectives in this drama directed by Esben Storm. Years later, after many appeals, the fact that the whole trial was based on manufactured evidence and that the men were innocent came to light. They were chosen as scapegoats because of their participation in an unpopular religious sect. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide