Australian
Screen

Clip description

Diane Davis (Mandy McElhinney) explains to legal aid solicitor Stephen (Mitchell Butel) that she and her husband Wayne (Steve Rodgers) have been turned down by 14 legal firms, all of whom have claimed connections to Centabank. Stephen explains their options and advises them not to pursue Centabank. They won’t win and they will be tied up in court for years. Jim Doyle (David Wenham) works round the clock on his theory. Simon (Anthony LaPaglia) invites Jim and his new girlfriend Michelle to dinner at his home that evening.

Curator’s notes

The film uses a lot of sophisticated graphics based on chaos theory and Mandelbrot diagrams to suggest that there are hidden patterns at work in the universe. Jim Doyle is excited by the purity of these patterns, but concerned by the real world implications of his discoveries. Simon’s invitation to dinner is part of his campaign of seduction, but also a way of trying to gauge whether Doyle is too altruistic and inclined to give his discovery away. It’s also Simon’s way of showing Jim that he too sees things that others don’t know he sees – such as that Jim has begun dating one of the bank’s other employees, Michelle (played by Sibylla Budd). There’s a strong and subtle attraction between Jim and Simon, and a battle for ownership, not just of Jim’s research (his brain), but also his heart and soul. Simon is a modern Mephistopheles in a Melbourne bank, offering the young and pure-hearted Jim the world that he sees beneath him, from the top floor of the bank.