plot outline - wendy ( samantha press ) , a jazz singer , loves mack ( hugo race ) a criminal and wanna be rock singer who 's planning a bank heist .
mack is also being tailed by a couple of cops , one an inexperienced rookie ( dominic sweeney ) , the other ( john flaus ) a worn out veteran who frequents wendy 's jazz club .
they 're tailing mack , because he has an audiotape that may show evidence of governmental corruption .
meanwhile wendy 's sexually awakener , fifteen year old sister ( rebecca elmaloglou ) has moved in with her , and is secretly watching mack and wendy 's late night love trysts ?
much zaniness ensues the review :
main problem first - about 2 % of rood rock star to actor conversions in filmdom ever really work .
unfortunately , trying to cast hugo race as a violent , sexy criminal falls into the " what the hell where they thinking " category
that takes up 98 % of the rest .
but , hell , it 's not as if he 's the only problem in this well - intentioned but ultimately below average aussie thriller .
leads , race and samantha press are wooden and dull , hampered by some unfortunate attempts at sexy dialogue early on .
though they do manage some heat later in their love scenes , helped , no doubt by them keeping their mouths shut .
the film suffers every time the story shifts back to these two . which is unfortunately , the other main story is n't any great shakes either .
the second part , concerning two cops , political corruption and that elusive tape is incredibly muddled .
at many points during the movie i had no idea what was going on , a situation that did n't improve on repeated viewing .
there is no doubt that this film 's achilles heel is its script .
as for the rest of the cast , it 's a mixed bag .
john flaus , one of australia 's most criminally underused actors , is in top form as the withering , alcoholic jazz fan cop , who may or may not have sold out to the highest bidder .
although he falters at one point , when the script calls for him to get up on stage and deliver a drunken beat sermon , but believe me , they way it was written , no one could have pulled it off .
dominic sweeney is fine , though he seems to be uneasy in front of the lens but he really is n't given a whole lot to do .
pre home and away elmaloglou is pretty good as the inquisitive jojo , but her character seems extraneous to the story , well , at least until the final scenes .
i must admit , in too deep does have some impressive qualities , not the least of which is it visual element .
cinematographers mark gilfedder & peter zakharov have achieved the almost impossible by making melbourne look like a sweat drenched tropic city , which is akin to turning london into san paolo .
the bar is an oppressive red , like all of it 's patrons are being baked while they drink , outside it hazy orange by day and cool blue by night .
if only deborah parson 's script could have supported this idea better .
having two director 's ( colin south & john tatoulis ) does n't help either , the most glaring example of which is the final retribution / fight scene , where for some reason the camera pulls away from the onscreen action , and more importantly it does n't pull away to anything else .
it just stays static as the fight happens in the distance .
it has no reason to it ; it 's just bad direction .
and , ultimately , that is what sums up in too deep
, it 's tries to be good , and you want it to work , but , it 's just lacking the talent behind it , that it needs to succeed .
Output: N