Palm Beach

(M) ★★½

Director: Rachel Ward.

Cast: Bryan Brown, Greta Scacchi, Sam Neill, Richard E Grant, Heather Mitchell, Jacqueline McKenzie, Claire van der Boom, Aaron Jeffery, Matilda Brown, Charlie Vickers, Frances Berry.

The latest Endless Summer movie was a real disappointment.

In a rare week when there is not one but two Aussie films getting a wide release in our cinemas (see also Danger Close: The Battle Of Long Tan), you could be forgiven for thinking there was some kind of local movie industry resurgence going on.

But Palm Beach is not the signal of a new wave - rather it's evidence of an industry stuck in the sand. The film fills a void for an oft-ignored demographic, and hopefully gets bums on seats, but it lacks the vitality, spark and originality to make it a runaway success or even highly recommendable. It is okay, but nothing more than that. It is pleasantly average, vaguely disappointing, and largely forgettable.

If nothing else, the top-shelf cast and the colourful characters they portray are welcome company as they reunite at the scenic Palm Beach. It's the birthday (60th? 70th?) of former band manager and T-shirt designer Frank (Bryan Brown), and flying in to join him and his wife (Scacchi) for a boozy long weekend are their kids (Matilda Brown and Vickers), ex-bandmates Billy (Grant) and Leo (Neill), along with their wives - actress Eva (Mitchell) and the fun-loving Bridget (McKenzie) - plus Holly (van der Boom), who is the daughter of the band's deceased lead singer, and her beau Doug (Jeffery).

Over the next few days, they will bicker and laugh, and dig up old memories and long-buried secrets as they re-evaluate what went wrong and right with their lives.

A better Aussie cast you'd be hard-pressed to find, and their chemistry helps give the film some necessary warmth, even in the face of a script that struggles to drum up any real emotion. In the "having a good time" scenes, you get the sense this was fun to make, and that the cast enjoyed themselves. That goodwill flows over into the film, and the older actors all acquit themselves well. It's only a woefully miscast Jeffery (he's 50, not a young lover) and an underwhelming van der Boom who let the side down. But they are the least of the film's problems.

Palm Beach lacks tension, which induces tedium. Several potentially large issues are dealt with either too quickly or not at all. One character uses the band's hit song for an ad without the knowledge of the other members, and the next day, all is forgiven, despite it being a huge deal the day before (and there is no discussion about royalties - is it just me or is that weird? On a sidenote, this is representative of the film's unrealistic portrayal of its old ex-musos - they never seem like former bandmates in their inter-relationships or the way they talk about the band's past, if at all). A character damages a neighbouring house, but this is ignored.

The script's biggest disservice is done to its female characters. Their arcs all revolve around their men or are non-existent. Faring worst is McKenzie's Bridget who gets no subplot at all. But worst of all is the fact a lot of their conversations are about their men, as if they have no lives of their own. The female characters don't feel as well fleshed out as the male ones, which is disappointing.

The slow-burn central mystery of the film is hackneyed and fails to spark anything, while the various in-and-out of love plots are tiring. All of these issues boil down to the lacklustre and unoriginal script. It's The Big Chill meets The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and that's not necessarily a recommendation.

(I thought I was clever coming up with that comparison, but it turns out Bryan Brown has been describing it thus in interviews. So if nothing else, I at least feel like I was right.)

It leaves Palm Beach lacking any distinguishing features beyond the cast. Ward's direction captures the setting well, and imbues shots with warmth, but the script (which she co-wrote) falls short. It needed more laughs, some sizzle in the dialogue, and some actual stakes. It doesn't help that the movie wanders from one mid-life crisis to the next, occasionally hitting a nice theme or seam of story, before meandering off to a montage of postcard-worthy scenery.

This blandness is also exemplified by the soundtrack. It's a mix of overplayed '60s and '70s rock, folk and soul songs that don't add to the film. Instead they unsubtly labour points, or feel like generic selections. Are these songs supposed to speak to the bygone halcyon days of these characters, because if so, the time span feels too wide? Why isn't the soundtrack buzzing with the "contemporaries" of the main characters' band, or a narrower selection from a particular era to invoke a welcome feeling of nostalgia?

This is a missed opportunity because the cast is largely fun to hang out with. But their high spirits and strong performances wear out in the face of tired tropes between the patchy entertainment.