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| Two Hands director, Gregor Jordan |
by Erin Free
Like a good punch to the face of Australian film has come Two Hands, a gritty little number that manages to be tough, funny, positive and commercial at the same time. The story of Jimmy (hot up-and-comer Heath Ledger of 10 Things I Hate About You), a young hood who puts himself in the shit when he loses ten thousand dollars of mobster Pando's (played by Aussie legend Bryan Brown) money, Two Hands might just be this year's Australian success story.
The man behind the wheel is young first time feature director Gregor Jordan, who got his break with the very canny short film Swinger. A quick shot of a man who decides that he doesn't want to commit suicide a moment too late, it took out the Tropicana Short Film Festival before nabbing the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1995. He then won an AFI Award for his second short film Stitched. After directing Big Sky and Bryan Brown's Twisted Tales for television, Gregor Jordan now makes his presence felt on the big screen with Two Hands. FILMINK's Erin Free caught him on the move and on his mobile about his black comedy-thriller.
"I've always been interested in crime as a genre in terms of gangster movies and things like that. When I came to write Two Hands, I had an office in Kings Cross and I just started to write about things that were happening right outside the window. I combined that with the idea of the Australian crime scene. I had an interest in it as a milieu. I was always into movies like The Godfather. I was always especially interested in black comedies. Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, the Coen Brothers. I'm more interested in black comedy than crime cinema. In Australia, the humour tends to be a little more camp. It's usually more like Priscilla and Muriel's Wedding."
One of Jordan's biggest coups in getting Two Hands off the ground was his casting of Heath Ledger as Jimmy. "Casting the role of Jimmy was always critical. When you're presenting a character who basically does some very stupid things, you have to have an actor who's likeable. Otherwise everyone will just think he's a fuckwit. I was just really lucky to find him."
The star trip was never something that Jordan was interested in. "You have to look at unknowns when you're casting a nineteen year old. There's just not that many famous nineteen year olds, unless they're soapie stars. I didn't want a soapie star because it's too hard for people to get past it. I was doubly lucky with Heath, because he was so perfect for the role. He could really act, he looked amazing, he had great screen presence and a great voice. But he also had a lot of experience."
The other axis that Two Hands rests on is seasoned legend, Bryan Brown.
"After Twisted Tales, Bryan and I became friends. I always used to see him socially and he always knew what was going on with Two Hands, but we never really talked about him doing it. So I just gave him the script to have a look at. He said 'I like the script, I like the character, but there's certain bits that you need to fix up before I'll want to do it. He had ideas about actually making the whole script work."
This role sees Brown playing the heavy again after some recent light relief. "I think it's a great character for Bryan, because he's not the lead but he's the villain. He's this huge presence throughout the film. I didn't immediately think that he was the perfect person for it, but I realised that there was no one else in the world who could really play that role."
Just like Bryan Brown himself, Two Hands is earthy, funny and distinctly Australian.
link directly to this feature at http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=99
originally posted: 09/20/99 02:34:01
last updated: 06/30/00 01:33:38
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