A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Royal Hotel” (2023) (from the London Film Festival).
This is the first film I have seen at the Critic’s preview week for the London Film Festival at the BFI’s South Bank location. Lots more to follow! “The Royal Hotel” suffers from having a dull title that brings to mind a drowsy drama set around a seedy hostelry in Worthing-on-Sea. But, thankfully, nothing could be further from the truth. This is a corker of a movie!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are two backpackers in Australia. But the Americans (pretending to be Canadians because they are cooler!) run out of money in Sydney. They choose to take a live-in job doing bar work in a remote mining location in the outback. They are told by the agency to expect some “male attention”. The agency is not wrong. Hanna wants to leave immediately; the more headstrong and man-hungry Liv is determined to stick it out.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: R. (This has not yet been rated by the BBFC but I would expect it to be a 15 due to language and sexual threat).
Talent:
Starring: Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Hugo Weaving, Ursula Yovich, James Frecheville, Daniel Henshall, Toby Wallace, Herbert Nordrum.
Directed by: Kitty Green.
Written by: Kitty Green & Oscar Redding.
Twitter Handle: #TheRoyalHotelMovie.
Getting the job: Liv (Jessica Henwick is keen); Hanna (Julia Garner)… less so. (Source: Neon).
“The Royal Hotel” Review:
Positives:
- The film exquisitely builds its premise with a neat 5-minute intro to the two girls, set on a party boat in Sydney Harbour (one of the most photogenic locations in the world!) From there, writer/director Kitty Green (with co-writer Oscar Redding) imperceptibly ramps up the disquiet and the tension as the two disappear into the drinking culture and decidedly non-PC humour of the mining town. For example:
- After the girls arrive, “Fresh Meat” and a pair of boobs are chalked on a board outside the hotel;
- the locals ask for a “Dicken’s Cider”, confusing the hell out of the out-of-town girls. (By the way, this is a real Australian drinks brand, if you’ve not seen their outrageous (but very funny) commercials!);
- The gruff and unsmiling Hanna quickly gathers the nickname “the sour c***”.
- This is a class writing act (Oscar-nomination-worthy perhaps?) as it introduces us to real characters that come alive on the screen. For example:
- the hotel owner Billy (an unrecognisable – well, by me- Hugo Weaving);
- his no-nonsense wife Carol (Ursula Yovich);
- “the dick” Matty (Toby Wallace), who turns out to be a meterology graduate;
- a gruff miner, Teeth (James Frecheville), with romantic designs on Liv; and
- Dolly (Daniel Henshall), a hard drinker with a short fuse.
- Some appear to be friends; some appear to be foe; but prepare for the rug to be occasionally pulled!
- Yes, it’s a tense thriller. But the film is also surprisingly funny! I saw it in a packed screen of film-makers and critics and we collectively smashed the “6-laughs test” for a comedy. I was not expecting that.
- The cast is excellent, led by Julia (‘Ozark’) Garner and Jessica Henwick. Garner, who Kitty Green previously directed in the highly-underrated ‘Me-Too’ movie “The Assistant“, is again excellent. Jessica Henwick has previously been rather in the shadows in a lot of her previous films. (She was honestly the least memorable character in “Glass Onion“). But here she handles the leap to co-lead admirably. They are well supported by an ensemble cast that could be deserving of the ‘team’ SAG nomination.
Negatives:
- I loved the story. That is, literally, until the last minute. I was actually on a higher star-rating for this movie until that point. No spoilers, but I don’t think two of the characters affected by the action deserved that.
- As per my intro, the title is TERRIBLE!!! The documentary “Hotel Coolgardie” by Pete Gleeson inspired the film. (The backpackers were Finnish in that documentary). Reusing THAT would have been a better title! Something could have been chosen that was a bit more market-friendly, surely?
- This isn’t a criticism of the film. But I think Julia Garner needs to be a bit careful that she doesn’t get typecast (for her feature films) into this type of role: the “sour-c***” who’s abrasive, unsmiling and hard-edged. It’s a role that’s crossed from “Ozark” to “The Assistant” and now to this film.
Summary Thoughts on “The Royal Hotel”
What a great way to start my London Film Festival experience! This was a cracking film, highly engrossing and beautifully written, directed and acted. I have travelled to Australia many times on both business and pleasure, and the people are wonderful: blunt, no-nonsense and with a wicked, and sometimes highly irreverent, sense of humour. This film got a lot of that across really well, albeit in a somewhat extreme and non-PC manner!
I’m not sure how many LFF films get a spontaneous round of applause at the end of the film, but this one did (and neither of the other two I saw today did). It comes with a strong recommendation.
You don’t have too long to wait for this one: “The Royal Hotel” is due to open in UK cinemas on November 3rd 2023.
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Trailer for “The Royal Hotel”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9zq_4ED-pI .
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