Hammers Over the Anvil

It's 1910 rural Australia. Alan Marshall is a boy crippled by polio who worships local hunky horse trainer East Driscoll (Russell Crowe). He is befriended by new English arrival Grace McAlister (Charlotte Rampling). She and her husband have brought ostriches from Africa. Alan is taken with her and then he catches her with East.

It's an Australian film based on a book. It's an old style tragic romance and coming-of-age. It's a bit pulpy and melodramatic. The production is better than TV but isn't quite epic enough to be cinematic. More than anything, Alan needs to be more. The young actor is not the most charismatic but even that could be fixed with a more compelling character. He is supposed to be crushing on Grace. He needs to be spying on her as much as possible. More can be done. The story is a bit slow. What it does have are two big time actors doing a smaller project. They do well but at the end of the day, this is Alan's story. He needs to be more. A more compelling move would be for him to have a crush on East. Either way, this kid may not be up to the task and his character should be better anyways.