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Ralph (Matt Day) attempts to fix the car after driving through the night with Boyd (Richard Roxburgh) and Patsy (Miranda Otto), two big-city types in a rush to get to Sydney. Boyd’s impatience causes an injury to Ralph’s hand. He tries to resist Boyd’s interrogations, sensing a series of put-downs in the way the older man speaks to him, but then lets slip that he’s going to Nashville.
Curator’s notes
A lot of the film’s comedy comes from Richard Roxburgh’s inspired playing of Boyd, a man with a thousand stories and almost as many pasts. He seems to be intended as a modern version of Errol Flynn – con man, ladies’ man, adventurer. There’s a clue in the mention of him having ‘found gold in New Guinea’ – which is what Flynn tried to do before he went to Hollywood in the 1930s. His description of his life fits the Flynn biography pretty well, too, but Roxburgh also plays Boyd as a man who has intelligence and principles – although not the kind that most people would recognise. There’s an unexpected streak of kindness in him that makes his actions unpredictable, especially when combined with his opportunism. The contrast with Ralph, who’s young, green and prickly, is part of what keeps the film interesting.
