The Nugget

Good old Aussie mateship. A fine tradition sullied somewhat of late with its use as a political catchcry by a certain weasel-like, warmongering little man very much in need of a pair of tweezers...

The Nugget makes a pretty solid effort at wresting the whole idea of mateship back from where it doesn’t belong, in what is almost a fable-like tale of three road-working blokes known as the Black Tar Gang – Lotto (Eric Bana before turning green), so named due to his remarkable propensity for being a total loser when it comes to anything involving gambling; Wookie (Stephen Curry from The Castle), conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, known as such due to his swearing he once spotted one of George Lucas’ hairy big buddies in his backyard; and the rather inert Sue (the man who redefines “laconic�, Dave O’Neil), who scored his nickname after an unfortunate incident involving a severed finger in a steak and kidney pie and the resulting legal action.

The whole fable vibe can pretty much be put down to the film’s creator, Bill Bennett, and his desire to adapt John Steinbeck’s story The Pearl for the big screen. The rights weren’t available, so he took the premise and went his own merry way with it. The result is a fabulously Australian yarn of what happens when three average blokes discover the world’s biggest nugget (that’s gold, not chicken) whilst out prospecting one fateful weekend (between sucking back the piss, of course). And being an Australian tale the bloody big chunk of gold could only have been discovered one way - when Sue was off having a slash.

The ensuing story revolves around the effect their discovery has on the three, and their generally incredibly put-upon but remarkably patient missuses (umm, or should that be missi?) Thinking themselves set up for good, thoughts turn to spending up big - purchasing property, that most wonderful of aromas - the new car smell - and even such little luxuries as facials and manicures (for Lotto’s wife by the way, these blokes are real blokes, right?) Heck, caution is even thrown to the wind at a celebratory dinner - and when a second Mongolian hotpot is ordered you know you’ve made it!

Ah, but there’s always a fly in the tomato sauce, and this one comes in the shape of the scavenger – local scrap yard proprietor Ratner (Peter Moon). The King Rat smells one of his namesakes when coming across our three ordinary blokes digging up their golden discovery, does a bit of nosing around and ends up kidnapping their bounty to feed his own greed, striking a deal with local fast food, jewellery and prostitution impresario Dimitri (Vince Colosimo – a man you do not want to buy a battered sav from) to dispose of it in fiscally pleasing style. Ah, but he doesn’t count on Lotto, Wookie and Sue getting a whiff of his plans and making their best efforts to get back what is rightfully theirs...

With an engaging narration from Wally (Max Cullen), a rather grizzled fellow prospector of indeterminate age (other than very old) adding to the whole fairy/morality tale air, The Nugget neatly explores the effects greed, and slipping ethics under a tea cosy, can have on a group of friends, their partners, and the whole local community around them under a thick guise of comedy. Filled with humour that is defiantly and blissfully Australian and often concentrating on those wonderful small weird things we encounter in everyday life, the rapport the three leads have from their stand-up comedy days really shines through, and they’re helped out no end by a generally brilliant supporting cast brimming with mostly familiar local talent – Belinda Emmett, Sallyanne Ryan and Karen Pang as the three wives, Alan Brough as the deeper than he appears Jurgen, Tracey Mann, Jean Kittson, Chris Haywood, Jane Hall in small but perfectly formed roles – the list goes on and on.

"Don’t bag the CWA, they make a mean lamington!"

Well, the transfer certainly lives up to the film’s name, as it’s a right little bottler. In 16:9 enhanced 1.85:1, there’s little to fault at all – colour is vibrant and well-saturated without ever freaking out – and considering some of the ever-so-chic little orange numbers going around at times this is no mean feat. Blacks are equally as spiffy, detail is magnificent, losing little in darker shots, and the only real whinge it’s possible to muster is that there are some very slight examples of aliasing and shimmer on a few rare occasions. The layer change comes late in the film; plopped on a still scene it’s not particularly noticeable. In all it does justice to what is at times a remarkably interestingly shot film.

Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes comes as default, but we'll concentrate on the 5.1 version, simply because we can - otherwise, rest assured the lesser stereo mix works as well as can be expected. Meanwhile, the 5.1 does its job particularly well, never taking time off to lean on a shovel or knock back yet another cuppa. While not a disc to whack in to show off the old super-hyper-mega-surround-sound system to your mates, there’s some fabulous use of the surround channels for atmospheric effect, with the subwoofwoof piping up when called upon to give a decent dose of thump to proceedings. Dialogue is perfectly balanced with all the other noise so as to always be easily discernable, and synch is spot-on, which is impressive considering the apparent vast amount of post-production voice work done on the film.

Nigel Westlake’s score is fairly unobtrusive, which just goes to show how good it is, at it adds to the slightly fairytale vibe of The Nugget superbly without ever screaming “Hey! Yoohoo! Over here! Notice me!�. A few pop songs are chucked into the mix for good measure. Queen’s We Are the Champions is used to fun effect, and everything from good old Aussie talents The Choirboys (eep!), Richard Clapton, Alex Lloyd and Deb Conway to stuff like Selwyn’s Hall & Oates cover and that confounded Bobby McFerrin annoyance Don’t Worry Be Happy pop up at various times.

The menus are minimally animated, but suitably sparkly. A reasonable array of extra goodies has been assembled to go prospecting within...

Audio Commentary: Now this is well and truly worth the price of admission, with Bill Bennett, Eric Bana, Stephen Curry and Dave O’Neil all getting together for an always fun, often cack-worthy (as in “haha�, not “poopoo�) scene-specific chat about the film. From the opening crane shot through the director’s many, many favourite moments, to Dave whining about his gammy leg to goss about various cast members and innumerable shout outs to our friends in Toronto, this is always entertaining and even vaguely informative at times.

Trailer: It runs for 2:11, is in non-enhanced 1.85, has DD2.0 sound and does a bang up job of promoting that which it’s supposed to. That’s the film The Nugget, you drongo!

Interviews: Totalling around 45 minutes in all, we‘re treated to pleasingly non-sucky interviews with Bill Bennett, Eric Bana, Dave O’Neil, Stephen Curry, Belinda Emmett, Peter Moon and Alan Brough, along with a segment from Rove featuring the Noughties’ answer to Daryl Somers chatting with his girlfriend (heehee, or is she his wife?) Emmett and Curry. It’s all great fun and ends with an Angela Bishop report on the film’s premiere in Mudgee taken from Ten news. The individual interviews are full frame, the Channel X stuff is in lovely 16:9 enhanced 1.78:1.

Behind the Scenes: In an enhanced ratio of 1.78:1, this runs for 6:57 and highlights three scenes, with a combination of B-roll footage and final product, including the gloriously wanky crane shot when the news crews descend on Lotto’s house at one point.

Alternate ending: Running for 3:49, un-enhanced and utterly appalling visually, this is more of an extended ending than an alternate one, adding a bit more Wally to the mix.

Bloopers: Just two and a half minutes of the usual stuff-ups and giggle fits – with a generous sprinkling of naughty words beginning with the letter ‘F’.

Deleted scenes: Six in all, totalling 3:45, most of which are fairly inconsequential, although The Hole is an absolute comic gem.

Dolby Digital trailer: The Mudgee one (nah, not really, it’s just Egypt yet again...)

Superbly presented on DVD with a decent enough array of extra stuff, while The Nugget isn’t the greatest Australian comedy ever to hit the screen it is still a deftly assembled, generally well-acted and often hysterically funny little tale, which has a habit of veering off into occasional bouts of just plain oddness. It’s certainly not up to the standard of The Castle for example, however it’s worth a few million Welcome to Woop Woops and is still very much deserving of a place in the most hallowed of Aussie sanctuaries – the pool room.