Blackrock

This Australian drama stars Laurence Breuls as Jared, a 17-year-old Sydney lad haunted by the fact that he did nothing while witnessing the gang-rape of a young girl at a party, a failure compounded by the fact that she turned up dead a few hours later. Running parallel to Jared's story is that of his single mother Diane (Linda Cropper), who is coping with an impending mastectomy along with her son's troubles. For much of its first hour, Blackrock flirts with any number of potentially intriguing themes: the fatherless Jared's relationship with his male best buddy (Simon Lydon), the secret lives parents and teens hide from one another, and the blame-the-victim mentality which sometimes overshadows sex crimes. It just never adds up to as much as it could, reaching its real climax with twenty minutes remaining and puttering to a conclusion from there. The complexities of character contribute to some strong performances, particularly by Cropper; but the script tackles a lot of issues without dealing with any one of them really well. Optional. (S. Renshaw)