Any Questions for Ben?

source: Any Questions for Ben?

Moviecut—Any Questions for Ben?

I avoided ANY QUESTIONS FOR BEN? on its release as I simply didn't like the title and after watching a slew of uninteresting contemporary Australian comedies I decided to give the film a miss. I watched the it this evening on a streaming channel and was surprised to find I liked it as much as I did ... which may not be saying much. I wasn't aware this was a Working Dog production (the team who made The Castle and The Dish, as well as numerous highly successful and very funny television shows) and while it lacks the laugh out loud comedy of their earlier films, it contains a conventional rom-com formula that works fairly well. Title character Ben (Hosh Lawson) is in his late twenties and although a university drop-out, he has built a high-profile reputation in marketing. Admired and envied by his friends, Ben lives in the CBD with his two best mates and spends his nights and weekends socialising and hopping from one tryst to the next. After returning as a guest speaker to his alma mater, Ben meets up with old university friend Alex (Rachel Taylor) and learns she is working for the UN in Yemen. Both Ben and Alex address the current students at their old school and talk about their careers. During question time, the students have loads of questions for Alex but no one has questions for Ben - thus the film's awkward title. This causes an existential crisis for Ben who suddenly finds himself in searching for meaning. There is a hint of Woody Allen here that reminds me of Annie Hall, Another Woman and Hannah and Her Sisters (though not at all in the same league) where Manhattan protagonists stop moving long enough to suddenly recognise that their lives are meaningless. Ben becomes fixated on Alex but finds that his old habits are hard to break as his fear to commit to anything longterm gets in the way of meaningful relationships. It is difficult to try and decipher what it is the Working Dog team are trying to say with their film. While Ben's friends are not unlikeable, there is a general lack of depth to any of them except Ben who feels increasingly isolated and alone in his angst-ridden journey even as he continually tries and fails to reach out to friends and family and connect on a more intimate level. In the end, Ben makes a decision to stay with this job and his apartment after having led a a life of transient affluence throughout his twenties. This extends to his relationship with Alex and he finally gets enough gumption to put himself on the line for love. After flitting about Melbourne hot spots throughout the film, the ultimate message of the film seems to be that the solution for soullessness can be found in a highly conservative formula of work and family values ... yet after meeting Ben's parents, even this seems hollow. Is there a deeper cynical agenda at work for the Working Dog team? Maybe, although I'm thinking this is more my reading of the film as I seriously doubt they are clever enough to pull off cynicism with a lightness of touch. The constant socialising at prominent Melbourne venues and festivals captured in fast paced montage as well as the deluge of aerial shots of the CBD certainly show off just how much the city of Melbourne has to offer - and what is shown of this beautiful southern city is not even half of what there is, especially as the film rarely wonders outside the space of the CBD to explore its rich cafe culture, theatre and arts - yet the constancy and excessiveness of shots of Melbourne seem like the film has been sponsored by a tourist information group. This might be a love letter to Melbourne, yet the film ends by ultimately showing that one has to fly to Yemen to actually find love.

I started watching this movie just due to my recent admiration for the writers, and the fact that I live in Melbourne. Reading a few of the reviews on here prior to watching this though did make me wonder if it was even worth my time..... Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. The story is simple enough - boy meets girl at a reunion, boy royally screws things up, boy attempt to win girl back whilst understanding his own existence. Personally, I loved the snappy dialogue, and although Ben had his flaws, he remained a lovable protagonist all the same. His love interest Alex was portrayed fantastically by Rachael Taylor, and Ben's various friends and family reinforced his both his charm and downfalls. Finally, the backdrop of Melbourne became the ultimate star of the movie with its romantic scenery and incredible events that add to the pace of the story. Do yourself a favour - if it is a rainy night, snuggle up on the couch with a cup of peppermint tea and lose yourself in this romcom.

Any Questions for Ben does deal with an interesting subject: the changes in your thinking and approach to life that occurs as you approach 30. However, there's a few problems with the production qualities of the film that generally lets it down. First, none of the actors look like they're in their late 20s. More like mid 30s and somehow that takes credibility out of it. Second, they gave him the wrong job and life for someone having that late-20s crisis. He's dating models, attending leading social events, driving sports cars and living the dream. Someone in that position having some sort of existential crisis seems comically unbelievable. Almost seems like a whinging playboy at times. Product placement was rich. Editing was snappy and dizzy. Pop rock music blasted in and out - and who on earth still does fade-to-black at the end of a scene? The film was way too long. Lots of things could have been left on the cutting room floor. It was apparently expensive to make, yet there's a pointless indulgent skiing trip in New Zealand and an unnecessary trip to Yemen at the end. The interplay between the characters was rather funny at times. The writers certainly have a good way of portraying awkward social situations and funny eccentricities in people we can relate to. The most unusual thing about this film is that its only mildly amusing for the most part, the scene where he's been interviewed by customs when the credits roll is absolutely hysterical.

When i start watching this movie, i didn't think i was going to like it, but it turn out to be well cast and the script was good for most of the movie. i thought Josh Lawson was great as Ben, along with his low attention span mate Andy and flatmate Nick. Lachy Hulme as Sam was great and gave some great one liners and tied everything together. This is a good Saturday night movie to kick back to, about a guy who has cruzed threw life, going from job to job, changing apartments every eight months, and has the glamorous lifestyle but feels incomplete. When an old classmate, Alex shows up, Ben is drawn to her, but his bad habit of not doing things catches up with him. Will Ben get the girl of his dreams or has she slipped away?

The biggest problem with this movie is that it is about nothing that anyone cares about. The main character in the movie is a self-important, wealthy jerk who spends the movie treating those around him like crap and being nasty to the one girl who puts up with it.... and for some reason the movie acts like we are expected to like him. The woman keeps putting up with his crap and emotional mindgames and what have you, and rather than being a deconstruction of the typical rom-com, the movie plays it straight and expects us to cheer and leave with a smile when it reaches its all too predictable ending. None of this would make the movie unwatchable, in and of themselves, no, what makes the movie unwatchable is that it just isn't funny. Most of the so-called 'jokes' fall flat, they are predictable and considering all the cutting edge comedies released over the past few years, it makes this one just seem absolutely pathetic by comparison. Another insult is that the film has all these so-called 'cutting edge' 'hip' bands to play on the soundtrack which just becomes distracting as the songs become gratuitous by playing for way too long. Couple this with pointless shots of Melbourne city and the train line, shots which go on for way too long and serve no narrative function, and you have one of the worst movies to ever come out of Australia. If you wanted to prove to people that Australian cinema was not a joke and was not dying then don't show them this movie, as you would make your own point invalid. What a waste of potential.

There are nice views of Sydney and the characters aren't overly ocker like they tend to be in some Aussie films. Those are the positive things I have to say about this movie. Any Questions for Ben is tedious, to put it simply. It's a story of a wealthy, successful "27 year old" (looks late '30s at least), and his little mid-life crisis. Similar in some ways to "Bliss", but as if it was written by a marketing executive. None of the characters except for Ben have any depth or reality, little of the dialogue really fits their personalities or the situations, and few of the actors are convincing in their roles apart for Lachy Hulme as Ben's friend Sam, who was pretty believable as his character. I was astounded by the obvious expense on show for such a limited story- top tier sports cars, locations galore, extras, helicopter shots all over the place, and last but not least all the music, a lot of it big hit songs. And that was another one of the issues: Massive hit songs like Time of the Season by the Zombies simply wasted on boring reaction shots. There was such an obvious attempt to add depth and feeling to very empty scenes with iconic songs that the emptiness of the scene was highlighted rather than disguised. There were some good ingredients here and a lot of obvious quality film making skill, but the writing was just so underdone and superficial.

I've never reviewed a film on here before, however I really feel compelled to write a review of this film. Normally my general feelings for a film will be reflected in it's IMDb score, averaged over 1000s of users. However for Any Questions For Ben, I would rate this much much higher than a <6. It's a great, easy to watch comedy, which much deeper messages. I believe this film appears to the 20/30 something professionals, who have coasted along in life and found themselves somewhere they didn't originally think they'd be. It's funny, and charming, and quick paced. The editing is fine. I have absolutely no idea what all the bad reviews on editing are about. It's not massive budget Hollywood but it's extremely well done I think. I never got bored, I empathised with the characters, I enjoyed the excellent and appropriate soundtrack.. I found many of the conversations between different characters spot on, and underneath some of the lighthearted dialogue there's a much deeper message. This film is great. Just give it a watch.