Ned Kelly *** (2003, Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, , Naomi Watts, Rachel Griffiths, Joel Edgerton) – Classic Movie Review 1072

Director Gregor Jordan’s 2003 remake of Tony Richardson’s 1970 film Ned Kelly with a bizarrely miscast Mick Jagger this time stars Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush and is in the interesting category.

It is a decent, earnest and sombre but unfortunately sluggish account of the short life and death of Australia’s 19th-century outlaw, Ned Kelly (1855-80), sincerely played but without any real inspiration by a suitably tragic-looking Heath Ledger.

Based on a rather fanciful novel, Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe, the screenplay by John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary) is none too factual, but that is the least of this none too exciting movie’s worries. Ledger, hiding behind a scruffy beard, is too downbeat here and, for such a charming actor, surprisingly lacks the needed charisma as the hero of the outlaw band on the run from the police, represented by a typically lip-smacking Geoffrey Rush, as Superintendent Francis Hare.

A murky-looking film does not even look particularly handsome like its 1970 predecessor, with Oliver Stapleton’s grungy cinematography way outshone by Gerry Fisher’s in the original. And good actors Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Rachel Griffiths and Joel Edgerton do not have much chance to shine with McDonagh’s surprisingly thinly fleshed script. The film does has its share of lusty moments and exciting scenes, though, and it is worth a look for them and of course for Ledger, as well as its distinguished support cast.

Gregor Jordan is known for Two Hands (1999), also with Ledger, Buffalo Soldiers (2001) and Unthinkable (2010).

http://derekwinnert.com/two-hands-classic-film-review-624/

http://derekwinnert.com/calvary-brendan-gleeson-movie-review/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1072

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com