South Pacific *** (2001, Glenn Close, Harry Connick Jr, Rade Serbedzija) – Classic Movie Review 2182

Director Richard Pearce’s 2001 TV movie remake of the 1958 big-screen favourite is bright, tuneful, well made and handsomely produced, as Richard Rodgers’ and Oscar Hammerstein II’s classic 1949 Broadway musical comes to the small screen with its splendid score intact (apart from Happy Talk). And this time all the principals are actually singing. 

It’s graced with a game and sprightly performance by Glenn Close as a younger American nurse called Nellie Forbush who falls for a mature, older French plantation owner, widower Emile de Becque (Rade Serbedzija), during World War Two in the South Pacific. It also stars Harry Connick Jr as the romantically inclined young Lieutenant Joseph Cable, Jack Thompson as Captain George Brackett, Lori Tan Chinn as Bloody Mary and Ilene Graff as Singing Ngana.

It’s irresistible for musicals fans that the great evergreen show tune hits just keep coming: Bali Ha’i, Some Enchanted Evening, Bloody Mary, There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame, A Cock Eyed Optimist. I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair, Younger Than Springtime, Honey Bun, Youve Got To Be Carefully Taught, I’m In Love with a Wonderful Guy, My Girl Back Home and This Nearly Was Mine.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2182

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