Death In Brunswick (1990 film)

Catgeory: Australian black comedy.

Directed by: John Ruane

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I have lived in Melbourne for quite a while now, and while I've always been aware of this movie's existence, even the title Death In Brunswick raises some curious questions - is it set in Brunswick, and should I be aware of any mortal dangers should I chance to venture there?

Now, for those of you who may not be familiar, the Brunswick in question is actually a real place. It's a suburb located north of the Melbourne CBD and comprises of a large percentage of people with southern and eastern European ethnicity (Greeks, Italians, Turks, etc) to the point that you wonder if you're still in Australia as you walk down the main street. Nowadays, Brunswick has become more hipster and I'd argue that the suburbs of Coburg and Preston seem to be the ethnic epicentres of northern Melbourne, but still…

Now, I just realised that this makes the 4th Australian movie in a row I have reviewed. Yes, I am warming up to Australian cinema. Let's see if Death In Brunswick can keep the positive momentum going, but let's do a plot recap first!

The plot:

Carl Fitzgerald (Sam Neill) is a layabout bloke (some may say lazy) who drifts between employment as a cook and prefers lazing in his hovel of a residence to the point that his mother (Yvonne Lawley) feels compelled to come clean up. Answering a job ad for a sleazy bar, Carl (to his surprise) is immediately employed and gets to work turning the kitchen around. Assisting him is Mustafa (Nick Lathouris), a long-time assistant cook who supplements his income by trading items of ill repute while on the clock. Hankering for an alcoholic drink (though against management rules), Carl heads upstairs to the bar and connects with the beautiful Sophie (Zoe Carides), a young Greek-Australian woman.

The next day (using landline phones, something so quaint), Carl agrees to meet Sophie at a cinema where she is chaperoning her young cousin. Carl and Sophie give in to their physical attraction and leave the cousin behind at the cinema so they can go have sex at her aunt's place. 

During the next shift at work, Mustafa is seriously assaulted and left for dead by the club bouncer/enforcer Laurie (Boris Brkic) who lies to Mustafa about Carl being involved and then threatens Carl to keep his mouth shut, further inflaming tensions between the two. Mustafa wakes up from his beating and attacks Carl for allegedly snitching on him. In self-defence and very unintentionally, Carl fatally stabs Mustafa. Not knowing what to do, Carl calls upon his best mate Dave (John Clarke, most famous for the political satire show Clarke & Dawe), a man raising two children whilst in a loveless marriage. Dave comes up with the genius idea of taking Mustafa's body to a cemetery, and despite Carl's stress and misgivings about the situation, the two men shove Mustafa's corpse into an already-dug grave that will be filled in the next day - thus covering their tracks.

The next day at work, Laurie brings in Mustafa's wife and son who are worried as Mustafa is yet to come home from work, forcing Carl to lie through his teeth and state that he doesn't know where Mustafa is. Right after this, the club owner, Yanni (Nicholas Papademetriou) then makes Carl redundant and out of guilt, Carl hands over his earnings to Mustafa's wife and son as they walk despondently down Sydney Road (the main street in Brunswick which actually will take you to Sydney if you follow it far enough).

Being besotted with Sophie, Carl waits outside the bar and Sophie rejects Carl's attempts to talk with her. Shortly after Sophie leaves, the bar is firebombed and Laurie, seeing Carl in the vicinity, believes Carl was responsible. The threats from Laurie cause Carl to flee to his mother's residence. 

Not wanting to take no for an answer, Carl meets Sophie at a public swimming pool and finds out she is about to be married off to Yanni. Feeling forlorn, Carl walks out the swimming centre where he is kidnapped by associates of Mustafa in revenge for his disappearance. Carl comes up with a plan to give up Laurie, but to do so, he has to go back into the club where Sophie agrees to escape with him out the back. Laurie discovers Carl at the club and the two engage in a fight that is broken up by Yanni who breaks things off with Sophie. Carl and Sophie escape over the back fence right before Mustafa's relatives confront Laurie who is later found dead in a skip.

Carl and Sophie escape to Dave's place where Dave's wife makes things awkward, and sick of all the drama, Dave suggests to Carl that the easy way to get money to afford a life with Sophie is to bump off his mother for the inheritance. Carl's plan is thwarted when he sees his mother praying, and then attends church with her the next day where he sees a vision of Mustafa and makes peace with him.

Back home, Carl attempts to give his mother an overdose of tablets, but is again thwarted when his mother notices her tea is served in the wrong cup, though a subsequent argument about money causes her to have a stroke.

Carl and his mother (in a remote-control wheelchair due to paralysis) go with Sophie to meet her dad to ask for her hand in marriage, which ends up with Carl getting punched. The final shot of the movie is Carl wearing a neck brace over his wedding tuxedo as the camera pans out to show a table full of guests, indicating that Carl and Sophie have wedded.

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It's a quaint little comedy, and I'd have to say that this style of low-key comedy is something Australian cinema has great form in - for more examples, see Crackerjack or the TV series Very Small Business. 

The other thing I'd call Death In Brunswick is a time capsule - Death In Brunswick captures a Melbourne, or maybe even an Australia, that existed a long time ago and exists only in fragments today. Over the last thirty-something years things, we have became more corporate, more cultured, more politically correct.

As an example of what I'm talking about, there's a line said by Sofie to Carl: 

We all thought you were a poof.

A line like that is something you couldn't get away with today. And alongside casual homophobia is casual racism, as Carl's mother doesn't like the fact that Carl is carousing with a Greek girl:

She must be incredibly common.

Lines like those highlight a time when our fictional characters acted like real people and scriptwriters weren't so worried about offending people.

However, this does highlight a generation gap in Australia - decades ago when European migrants headed over here, the established Anglo-Saxon populace had trouble accepting or socialising with them, and to be fair, new migrants did keep to themselves to the point that a Greek guy I knew played on a Greek soccer team that required you to show your Greek passport for membership. In fact, both sides of the equation had an issue if an Australian dated/married a Greek person, as we see in this film. However, the younger generations don't seem to mind. 

There is also a funny irony in that Carl and Dave, apparently quintessential Australian blokes, being played by New Zealand actors.

From a technical perspective, it's a fairly simple movie - there's no CGI, only one explosion, and stunts really only required for the fight scenes. I'd say the most elaborate shot of the whole movie is the graveyard scene where they had to film in the dark and make a gelatinised corpse that Carl and Dave have to compact to make room for Mustafa. It's gross, but it is in line with the dark humour of the film. It's so simple that it reminds me of The Castle, a movie renown for being made on a shoestring budget.

I also quite like the fact that for a movie set in the suburb of Brunswick, it was also filmed in Brunswick. Carl's house, the cinema, the places Carl rides his bicycle along, the bar, Sydney Road and the public baths are all real places in Brunswick and still standing! Reel Streets Of Melbourne has more here if you're curious.

All up, this is actually a recommended watch - if you like subtle comedy, dark humour, or even if you want to remininsce about a Melbourne that once was, get this going on your streaming service.

STAR RATING: 4/5