Films exploring the lives of loosely connected characters with no definite protagonist and plots that circumvent conventional cause-and-effect structure are generally not fertile ground for first-time film-makers. It’s a tough grind: without the safety net of an overarching storyline, these kind of narratives often feel frustratingly disjointed.
Last year the debut director Josh Lawson gave it a red hot go in the passable but underwhelming The Little Death, weaving together a handful of stories connected by the theme of sexual experimentation and a very loose sense of setting.
The kink is scaled back and a sense of location is expanded in Pawno, another Australian film from an actor-director, Paul Ireland, whose behind–the–camera debut is a well-meaning patchwork of drifting drama and laid-back comedy.
Set over the course of a day in the life of 14 intersecting characters, the film embraces (and was shot entirely in) Footscray,the Melbourne inner-west suburb five kilometres from the CBD. Proximity to the city means it is gentrifying quickly, although Ireland captures Footscray at a time when it is still raw and representative of an ethnically diverse group of people.
A large portion of the film revolves around the pawn shop referenced in the title, where a knockabout Aussie bloke, Les (John Brumpton), barters with cash-hungry clientele and occasionally dishes out favours for people he likes. Although business clearly isn’t busy enough to support more than one staff member, Danny (Damian Hill, who also wrote the film’s screenplay) is his lonely right-hand man.
The first of several actions that spell out the impending drama in rather unsubtle ways is when Danny picks up a book entitled 12 Steps to Finding Love. In a nearby bookshop Kate (Maeve Dermody) breaks her glasses; her colleague suggests she takes them to Les’s shop and we know before Kate walks in the door that cupid’s arrow is lock and loaded.
Similarly we understand a request for a gun from one of Les’s mates (Tony Rickards) signposts a dramatic moment to occur later in the running time. Other characters who drift up and down the street, or in and out of Les’s shop, include a trans woman named Paige (Daniel Frederiksen), two homeless men (Malcolm Kennard and Mark Coles Smith), and a distressed mother, Jennifer (Kerry Armstrong).
The cast do their best with the material but the scattered structure of the film does them no favours. Armstrong might have provided welcome gravitas if her role were more fully formed. Like most of the film’s characters, she seems to exist primarily to serve the functions of the screenplay – which is ironic given the film is fashioned as a “day in the life”-style rumination on people and place.
Australian films rooted in specific metropolitan settings are not uncommon, from Melbourne’s Death in Brunswick and Animal Kingdom to Sydney dramas Erskineville Kings and Looking for Alibrandi. With most of Pawno shot indoors, and outdoor scenes taking place in the same locations, Ireland’s film feels as though it could have been made virtually anywhere.
Perhaps that is a testament to the universal elements of Hill’s screenplay, which fares better when it broaches everyday Australianisms rather than the darker terrain it inevitably explores.
