By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * * )
The pride of Australian astronomy stands in a sheep paddock outside the little town of Parkes in New South Wales: a radio telescope big enough for its own cricket field. In 1969, its staff hear the news that they will relay the
TV pictures from the Moon of Neil Armstrong's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Well, sort of: Nasa has a much larger telescope in California but Parkes will be the backup should anything go wrong.
At the site Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) smokes his pipe and gazes in a fatherly way upon his team: Glenn (Tom Long), mathematician; Mitch (Kevin Harrington), technician; Al (Patrick Warburton), nerd from Nasa. Saving the site from foreign agents and roaming sheep is Rudi (Tayler Kane), whose sister Janine (Eliza Szonert) is keen on Mitch.
Since you know (unless you believe the conspiracy theories and Did Man Really Get To The Moon?-type TV programmes) that Armstrong and co got there and we all saw the pictures, you'll wonder what the suspense might be.
Enough to say that director and co-writer Rob Sitch (The Castle, one of the funniest comedies in years) tells his story well, loves and respects his characters and their foibles, and has an eye for a good line and the humour of a situation. Perhaps, though, he could have trimmed a good 15 minutes of the grainy black-and-white footage we know so well.
In an era when Hollywood seems to think that vulgarity, humiliation and bathroom humour are what's funny, support Sitch and his producing partner, Michael Hirsh, as they advance Australia's fair-minded, entertaining, good-hearted movies.
Running time: 101 mins
Rental: Today
