Welcome to 25 for 25 my project to watch and eat my way around the world in 2025 with 25 movies from 25 countries matched with 25 country themed dinners. Today’s entry is Egypt but you can see the full Masterlist to watch and cook along with me.
Country: Australia
Movie: Proof
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Year: 1991
The Elevator Pitch: Martin (baby Hugo Weaving) is a blind man with extreme trust issues who befriends Andy (baby Russel Crowe), a local restaurant worker. Martin is cared for and abused in equal measure by a helper named Celia (Geneviève Picot) who does everything in her power to manipulate the two men. Martin believes he was serially lied to by his mother when he was a child and now takes pictures of things and labels them in braille with the assistance of strangers to double check they are what his minders say they are. When Martin forcefully befriends the off-put Andy, it drives Celia into a jealous rage and all of them pay the consequences.
How Was the Movie?: I didn’t mean to watch two movies about blind people back to back but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. This one is obviously meant to be more naturalistic and it nails that. This movie is labeled as a comedy which I think does it a weird disservice since it is, at times, funny but it’s mostly a very thoughtful piece about the intricate lives of these people. I liked the film on the basis that it’s not just that we live in a society but also how desperately interwoven and dependent on each other our lives are. For the audience it’s obvious that Martin would need the help of others to get around due to his blindness but I actually feel like he’s the most independent of the three in some ways.
The relationship between Martin and Andy is absolutely charming and it’s fun to watch two actors who are going to go on to have absolutely explosive careers doing random nonsense together. It’s such a shame that the woman who plays Celia never got her shot because she does a lot of legwork carrying the films tense atmosphere on her back.
I really appreciate that this film delved into what a lack of trust does to someone but it also shows that sometimes people are casually untrustworthy in unique ways they don’t mean to be. I don’t know, it just has that perfect slice of almost real life to be a really satisfying movie.
What was for Dinner?:
For dinner I made Chicken Parmi. Apparently chicken parmesan is a bar staple in Australia? Who knew? Usually served with fries and a salad it wasn’t exactly show-stopping but who doesn’t like a nice side of fried chicken from time to time. Overall dinner was fine.
That’s it for Australia, see you next in Vietnam!