Love Serenade

At bottom, this Australian comedy is a shaggy dog story, and not a very interesting one at that. Set in the fictional hamlet of Sunray, it begins when a big-city disc jockey by the name of Ken Sherry (George Shevtsov) moves in next door to the Hurley sisters, Vickie-Ann (Rebecca Frith) and Dimity (Miranda Otto). Before long, the pair are vying ferociously for his affection, while he nonchalantly takes advantage of their starstruck insecurity, commanding each to take her clothes off with the same neutral tone of voice that usually accompanies a phrase like "Pass me the gravy" or "Get the phone, would you?" Otto and Frith are both first-rate (although Frith is occasionally a bit too shrill; she gives the most stereotypically Australian performance of the lot), but the revelation here is Shevtsov, whose basset-hound face alone is mesmerizing. And first-time director Shirley Barrett does a fine job of creating a palpable sense of time and place. But there's a mid-film revelation so incongruously bizarre that it stops the movie cold--it's "clever" in a coy, superficial, totally unsatisfying way. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)