let 's say you live at the end of an airport runway .
large jetliners continuously pass over your house , rattling your windows and allowing few moments of peace .
let 's say the ground beneath your feet is also contaminated with toxic substances , and high voltage power lines run across steel towers only yards from your home .
now let 's say an airport conglomerate wants to buy your property in order to lengthen the runway , and offers you more than it 's worth .
would n't you jump in the air and have your bags packed before you landed ?
of course you would .
but what if this bit of land was your idea of paradise , and the house your castle ?
that 's what they are to darryl kerrigan ( michael caton ) , and although he 's happy that a multi - national corporation would like to buy his home , sorry , it 's not for sale .
unfortunately , the corporation wields quite a bit of influence over the australian government , which serves darryl and his family with what amounts to an eviction notice .
not about to take this lying down , darryl enlists the help of his inept attorney friend dennis denuto ( tiriel mora ) and makes a determined , albeit pathetic , attempt to fight back .
the castle , an australian comedy by rob sitch , is perhaps one of the simplest movies i 've seen in recent memory , yet also one of the funniest .
in fact , it is this film 's reliance on simplicity which makes it so successful .
the good guys and the bad guys are clear , the humor is straightforward , and the storyline is as uncomplicated as it gets .
it 's the perfect setup for a relaxing , hilarious good time , and as much as i hate to admit it
, i liked the fact that i did n't have to think all that much while watching this film .
i just sat back and enjoyed myself .
the situation is one we 've seen before : regular joe fights back against the government , or big business , or whatever .
what makes this film different is its characters .
darryl thinks he 's got the best life in the world - he tells his family that living next to power lines is a constant reminder of the success of mankind , he asks who would ever want to go out and eat in a fancy restaurant when he 's got the meat loaf feast prepared by his wife sal ( anne tenny ) , and he swells with pride when his son dale ( stephen curry )
digs a hole in the yard .
steve kerrigan ( anthony simcoe ) constantly combs the buy and sell ads looking for " investments " like jousting sticks and overhead projectors , while wayne kerrigan is in jail , as a result of dennis denuto 's incompetent courtroom maneuvers .
the great thing about the kerrigans is that they are n't so stupid that they get annoying .
they 're just a group of simpletons whose naive nature is perfectly harmless and even endearing .
we look upon them with a little bit of pity , but a whole lot of affection .
screenwriters sitch , santo cilauro , tom gleisner , and jane kennedy pit
this lovable bunch of unlikely crusaders against a stoic court system and a condescending business conglomerate , further polarizing the extremes and deepening our feelings for the kerrigans .
sympathy for their situation , the laughter they bring us , and the family 's wonderful characterization , simple as it may be , leaves us with a degree of emotional investment that causes us to actually care about what happens to them .
i suppose one might wonder how deep characterization can go when your characters are as inane as the kerrigans , but trust me , it works .
i particularly noted that the writers did not have to use slapstick in order to get laughs .
do n't get me wrong - slapstick , when executed well , can be genius .
it 's just that too often , a film will resort to it 's use as a shortcut to amusing the audience , not always successfully .
instead , the jokes in the castle are all hinged upon the dialog uttered by these people who have no idea that they are totally skewed to the rest of the world .
when they are by themselves , the are funny , and when they are with normal people , they are hilarious .
one of the few problems i saw with this film was a detour taken about midway though .
the kerrigans go out to a vacation spot for seemingly no reason other than to pack in a few more jokes and increase the film 's running time .
luckily
, it 's a funny little detour
that , while slightly distracting from the film 's main drive , is still quite enjoyable .
with all the levity abound in the castle , the film still manages to take on a pretty heavy concept , that of the innate right of a citizen to keep his property , an issue which has been bandied about in courts across the civilized world with differing outcomes .
i 'm not certain the courtroom monologue near the end of the film would actually hold up in real life , but it brings to the forefront the essence of the constitution ( of australia ) and certainly sounds impressive at any rate . and , for that matter , it 's more than i would have expected out of a light hearted film like this .
Output: P