Goddess *** (2013, Laura Michelle Kelly, Ronan Keating) – Movie Review

‘Welcome to my kitchen sink. This is where I stop and think. Where I am often on the brink – of madness!’ – Elspeth Dickens.

Laura Michelle Kelly works her butt off as Aussie housewife Elspeth Dickens, who’s stuck in an isolated farmhouse with her ultra-demanding twin toddlers.

With her husband (Ronan Keating) regularly away at sea, life is a drudge for Elspeth, but she dreams of finding her voice and a local kid sets her up with a web-cam that becomes her pathway to possible fame and fortune as an advertising star, with the help of bitchy media guru Cassandra (Magda Szubanski) and her boy Friday, Ralph (Hugo Johnstone-Burt).

Thanks to some moderate songs and iffy ideas, it’s not perfect, but this well-dressed, good-looking feel-good musical is plenty fun-filled enough and has lots of appeal to girls who just wanna have fun.

If some of the tunes are only moderate, on the other hand one or two of the songs and their accompanying dance numbers are toe-tapping delights. Szubanski (Esme Hoggett in Babe back in 1995) also works hard for laughs and Keating makes a loyal and pleasant foil for Kelly. And, though based on a stage show, Goddess really flies as a movie under co-writer Mark Lamprell’s direction.

It’s Kelly’s show, and she’s good, maybe very good, though neither she nor the film can rack it up to Muriel’s Wedding, Strictly Ballroom or Priscilla heights. However, it is very likeable, and its undertow of truth melts much of the sugar.

Goddess was partly filmed in Sydney, Australia, and Tasmania. It’s based on the original stage play Sinksongs, written and performed by Joanna Weinberg, with music for the film written by Weinberg, Bryony Marks and Jude Morris.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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