Joe Cinque's Consolation (film)
| Joe Cinque's Consolation | |
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Theatrical film poster
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| Directed by | Sotiris Dounoukos |
| Produced by | Sotiris Dounoukos Matt Reeder |
| Screenplay by | Sotiris Dounoukos Matt Rubinstein |
| Based on | Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner |
| Starring | Maggie Naouri Jerome Meyer |
| Music by | Antonio Gambale |
| Cinematography | Simon Chapman |
| Edited by | Angelos Angelidis Martin Connor |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
Joe Cinque's Consolation is a 2016 Australian drama film directed by Sotiris Dounoukos based on the book of the same name. The film was given a limited theatrical release in October 2016 and has received a generally positive response from critics.
Anu Singh, an Australian National University student, drugged her boyfriend Joe Cinque's coffee with Rohypnol and injected him with heroin in 1997. The other guests of the dinner party in which this incident took place were aware of the murder plot and yet nobody warned him.
The film was shot over a 6-week period, beginning in April 2015. Shooting took place around the city of Canberra. It received financial support from Screen Australia and the Australian Capital Territory Government. Screen Australia paid a $13,000 feature film development grant that was approved in May 2012. The ACT Government's contribution of $16,220, paid through the ACT Screen Arts Fund, was to assist with mentoring support for Dounoukos during key phases of the film's production.
The film's world premiere was at the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival. It was also selected to be screened in the Discovery section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released nationally in cinemas across Australia on 13 October 2016.
The film has received mostly positive reviews, earning an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 71% audience score, but has also been criticised for being an incomplete adaptation of the book. Reviewing the film for The Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Byrne wrote that it was intriguing in dramatic terms, "but not entirely satisfying". Academic Dirk de Bruyn found the film engaging and called it "mature and intelligent". Rochelle Siemienowicz praised elements of the film's cinematography and wrote that the mentality of the times was captured realistically, but lamented that dialogue delivered by Sacha Joseph as Madhavi Rao made the character seem robotic. Sandra Hall wrote that Joe Cinque is the only comprehensible character in the film, giving it three stars. Luke Buckmaster in The Guardian gave the film two stars and called it a "rather cynical exercise in brand association". Richard Kuipers, writing for Variety in North America, gave a positive review: "[the film] offers a moody and compelling study of the facts while leaving audiences to draw their own conclusions to the burning question of why people would act like this". He went onto praise the performances by the two leads, as well as praising the technical details of the film, particularly the cinematography and score, stating: "Cinematographer Simon Chapman contrasts his warm lensing of intimate scenes with deliberately plain imagery of Canberra’s flat and uninteresting suburban landscape. Antonio Gambale’s fine score slides nicely from bouncy rhythms in early, happy times to brooding soundscapes as Singh’s monstrous plan takes shape. All other tech work is solid."
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