What Do The Critics Say?

"The appeal of the script is that it presents authentically conflicted characters with a depth and complexity rare in recent local product. Jackie, for example, shows a mature acceptance of the challenges Charlie poses yet can't help recoiling at some of his more confronting behavior. The fine sense of play Ward brings to the character allows her to fit in with the unorthodox Mollisons and help defuse situations with a quip." HOLLYWOOD REPORTER "Perhaps less satisfying than I would have liked, The Black Balloon does feature a number of punchy scenes; and the emotional landscape that Elissa Down paints; drawing on her own life experiences, is engaging. Especially interesting is how she uses the contrast of a bright cinematic tone against the potential for a downbeat mood seeping out of the subject matter." Andrew L Urban URBANCINEFILE "The Black Balloon is a confronting, beautifully structured film, brimming with 1980s nostalgia. Toni Collette is at the top of her game and Luke Ford is an absolute revelation." SUNDAY LIFE MAGAZINE "This is a film about the awkwardness of adolescence, about learning to accept your family and yourself and the difficulty and rewards of raising a child with a disability. "The Black Balloon" is a beautifully told, intimately domestic and utterly Australian story." Georgia Sholl OUR BRISBANE "It's a wonderful film this, because it brings out so much humour and emotion out of the situation. I mean you really feel for the members of this family and especially for Thomas because he's 15. He's finding he's a normal teenager. It's a film full of humour, as I say, full of emotion and, not the least bit confronting in that sense." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES

"The Black Balloon is essentially a coming-of-age drama about Thomas’s sexual awakening and acceptance of the brother he can never change. Luke Ford as the autistic man-child is the real revelation here. He makes us love, hate and pity Charlie all at once and is heading to Hollywood on the strength of this performance alone. Down succeeds at pushing all the right buttons. She makes us laugh, cry, feel uncomfortable and question our prejudices." Shannon Harvey PERTH NOW "An enjoyable and heartfelt slice of life. 3 STARS." Michael Adams THE MOVIE SHOW "The black balloon is like Clubland but better. I won't go into the similarities because they're the same but the differences aren't: The black balloon has more spaz behaviour, more Australian-ness and more teenage blokes in Speedos. Better acting, too." CINEMATIC INTELLIGENCE AGENCY "It frankly shows the stress and chaos for mothers, fathers and siblings in everyday life with a family member with such a disorder. It's treated with about equal amounts of humour and drama, and some of the 'tantrum' scenes; and one in which the autistic teenager soils himself, aren't easy to watch from the plush comfort of a cinema seat." Des Partridge THE COURIER-MAIL "This is such a strong film. The role of Thomas is a knife-edge one, it could so easily be made unsympathetic, but Rhys Wakefield makes us empathise with Thomas’s agonies, and Luke Ford makes Charlie both loveable and exasperating, another big achievement." Margaret Pomeranz ABC AT THE MOVIES

The Inside Story Inspired by her own experiences growing up in an army family with two brothers with autism, director Elissa Down co-wrote the script with sometime collaborator Jimmy The Exploder ("Five Guys Named Moe"). Given that this was their first feature film, they wanted to secure the expertise of one of Australia’s leading and most highly regarded producers. When they rang Tristram Miall ("Strictly Ballroom" & "Looking For Alibrandi") he was in semi retirement, standing in a paddock, tending cows. "I was moved by the script’s warmth and humanity, and intrigued by how it made me laugh and cry. I think there is something very exciting about young talented people who want to prove themselves and have a particular story that is close to them," he said. In 2002 the NSW Film and Television Office launched a new initiative; the Aurora Development Scheme, an intensive script workshop giving writers an opportunity to work with leading filmmakers, in honing their work and preparing their script for screen. In 2004, "The Black Balloon" was accepted into Aurora and the result is a loving and original look at the difficulties of growing up; especially with the constant moves required as an army child, coupled with the added elements of autism. Set in the early 90s, "The Black Balloon" is a story about fitting in, discovering love and accepting your family. "I got the inspiration for "The Black Balloon" because I have three younger brothers, two of which have autism, so growing up was very eventful, crazy, funny and sometimes very sad. I always thought it would be a powerful story to tell," the director and writer of "The Bathers" notes. The character of Charlie is based on Elissa’s youngest brother Sean, who not only has autism but also has ADHD and is an elective mute. "He was the bane of my existence growing up just like Charlie is to Thomas. Many elements in the film really did happen to us,", Down explained. "I did have to chase him down the street and get him out of other people’s houses and toilets and we would have to struggle to get him to take his medicine." So is Sean like any of the challenged characters we have seen before in films? "When people talk about autism they often reference "Rainman", which is one aspect of autism, and my other brother is very much like that but autism covers so many different facets. Sean is very different and we had the added frustration of him being an elective mute. He was so naughty and so full of life and we always thought he would be a great character for a film," she said. Icon’s Sally Chesher came on-board as an Executive producer after reading the script for "The Black Balloon". Chesher, who had previously worked as a production assistant on a number of films, including "Babe: Pig in the City" and "Bootmen", was already familiar with Down's work, having seen her Tropfest film, "Summer Angst". With Icon’s subsequent commitment to the film and the script finally in place, it was paramount to find exactly the right people to play the lead roles. The script was given to Toni Collette who committed to the role of Maggie immediately. Collette recalls, "I loved it, it was so beautiful and so intimately domestic and Australian." On the researching the part Collette, winner of four AFI Awards (1994, '96, '98 & 2003) added: "I think that with any great script you can do as much research as you want but the essence will be in the script, and Elissa has written such a gorgeous story that a lot of it is already in there." And how does that translate when it came to shooting the film? "There are moments in shooting this film which are indescribable. You really engage with what is going on and I think that is what makes it real and so special." When it came to casting the character Simon, Down was looking for a solid rock, the provider for the family. "Simon needed to be a military man," she says, "very masculine and very physical." 2003 Silver Logie Award winning actor Erik Thomson, who appeared in 111 episodes of "All Saints" between 1999 and 2003, recalls he wasn't daunted by the fact that the family was fairly autobiographical: "if you need an insight into the world you need look no further than your director to understand what it felt like, because she has travelled that journey." As for his character, he notes: "a father’s point of view it doesn’t matter whether your child has autism or not, you are a father first and foremost and Simon sees himself as the provider and the protector. He doesn’t really know too much about what goes on and how to handle Charlie, that is left to the mother and he is there to provide the stability and the shell around the family." In preparing for his latest role, the 2004 AFI Best Supporting Actor Award winner who played Richard in the critically acclaimed Australian film "Somersault", would spend time in an army barracks; grow his own moustache; meet with Down’s parents and, speak at length with Elissa's father to better understand parenting a child with autism. The role of Jackie was written with Gemma Ward in mind. Down and Ward had previously worked together on the short 2001 film "Pink Pyjamas". At just sixteen years of age, Ward was the youngest model in history to appear on the cover of American Vogue and, was the first model to ever appear on the cover of Teen Vogue. Down says Jackie is a bit of a tomboy, "the girl who is always taller than all the boys so she is struggling to get a boyfriend. She beats the boys at sport so she is very much the girl who boys like to have as a mate. She has had a loss in the family so she has that need for love and the family unit. She is very much a kid who stands out in her world. She and Thomas are attracted to each other because they are both people who don’t fit in." "Elissa sent me a copy of the script as it was being developed," Ward revealed. "I have seen it through a lot of changes. "The Black Balloon" is the story of love through all the family dramas that bring you closer. It is about acceptance and dealing with change." When it came to researching the role, Ward turned to her father who is a doctor. "When I first read the script I asked a lot of questions and he gave me many articles to read. I also read the book "The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-time" about a boy with autism, and that gave me a good understanding of how everything is systematic in their world." How close is the character Jackie to the real life Ward? "Jackie is funny and crazy. She is very free. I see a lot of myself in Jackie, I was very similar to her when I was thirteen or fourteen." Now the search began for the actors to play the two brothers. Luke Ford, who has just wrapped up shooting of "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", in which he plays Alex O'Connell the son of adventurer Rick O’Connell and, co-stars with Jet Li, Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh and Maria Bello (who plays Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell), was the second person auditioned for the role of Charlie, and within five seconds they knew they had found the perfect actor to play their Charlie. "When I read the script I realised that this was a character that I would never be offered again; one of those beautifully mentally and physically demanding characters," says Ford. "I didn’t research 'what is autism', as it was not relevant to my character. I wanted to know more about the physical and mental elements that my character was and was not capable of; for instance the rigidness, the lack of eye contact and the lost world." Ford didn’t just prepare for the character mentally, but also physically by strapping his legs to develop rigidness and stiffness. "I wanted to understand the general physical side of autism. I knew that once I started working with Sean that I could start working with the personality." Ford spent a lot of time with Sean and over the course of the production the two became great friends. "From Sean I learnt to communicate physically with my hands and not use eye contact," says Ford. "Spending so much time with him I was able to really see the personality and the boundaries of autism that I could use." The director admitted she was amazed at the amount of research Ford had done. "Luke is such a dedicated and committed actor. Between the first audition and the call back he had done even more research and he walked in in-character. His dedication was just amazing and there were times in rehearsals and on set where I would go to call him Sean and not Charlie, he was so convincing." When it came to casting the role of sixteen year old Thomas they were looking for someone who was still boyish but who was on the verge of becoming a man. The role was a challenge to cast as the actor had to have sensitivity, be someone teenagers would admire but who parents would want to have as their son. When Rhys Wakefield walked into the audition he embodied all of those elements. "Rhys was a beautiful surprise and in so many ways I think he is Thomas," says Down. To Rhys "The Black Balloon" is a suburban epic, "an epic struggle with adolescence and being overshadowed by a brother with autism. The script has a real raw emotional quality. It is a heart-wrenching, feel-good film." Now it was time to as Down says, for the boys "to do some road-testing of their characters in public." Wakefield descibed what happened when they visited a cinema. "We went to see Aragon because Charlie was into that genre. In the movies it’s intense. Dark and quiet. And Charlie was being loud, constantly moaning and groaning. And the audience reaction was insane. I kept shrinking into nothing. The audience was so young, no one understood what was going on. Then Charlie got hungry and I had to give him a lolly. We stayed until the very end of the credits, hoping the audience would have all gone, and then we snuck out." Collette describes Down's as "passionate, full of energy, focused and so much fun on set. With Elissa there is no pretence. She has a bit of grit with a poetic nature, as well the vision." And, despite the films shortcomings, that pretty well sums up this film: passionate, gritty, energetic and poetic. Synopsis

It's not easy being Thomas. He's turning sixteen; and moving into a new house, and school. His older brother Charlie announces their arrival to the neighbours by banging a wooden spoon and wailing on the front lawn. Charlie doesn’t speak. He’s autistic and has ADHD. He’s also unpredictable, sometimes unmanageable, and often disgusting. Thomas hates his brother but wishes he didn’t. The Mollisons are an army family; but it’s not what you'd call a regimented life, or even a regular household. Thomas's cricket-obsessed father, Simon, talks to his teddy. Simon and Maggie are openly intimate, and now Maggie is going to have another baby. When she has complications with her pregnancy, Thomas and Simon between them take on Charlie's daily routine. Thomas experiences the less savoury aspects of coping with his brother. What he didn’t expect is the shit-smearing; shopping centre tantrums and, riding in the Autistic School bus. Now it's sink or swim; and Thomas is drowning. The truth is he is. Literally!

The Verdict "Director and co-writer Elissa Down based "The Black Balloon" on her real-life experiences of growing up in a family with not one, but two Autistic brothers. What a brave, dedicated, loving and at times heart-breaking environment that would have been. It's every expectant parents hope that when a newborn baby arrives, it will be 'perfectly healthy'. Sadly it isn't always the case, and for some parents a different journey through life will commence. One that is vastly different from what most have had, or about to experience. One thing parents of 'challenged' children have in common with all other parents is that their child is loved just as much as any 'normal' child would be. With that in mind, it's impossible for most of us to even minutely grasp the effect of the demands of having two challenges to face, would have placed on everyone in the Down family. What many of us would see as 'dark times', obviously produced many bright moments for Elissa Down, otherwise she wouldn't have been inspired to direct and co-write this rich tale of two brothers, Thomas and Charlie Mollison. Despite its short comings and its 'likeness' in some ways to "Clubland", the film speaks to it's audience with pathos, glee, despair and most importantly, love. The biggest hurdle "The Black Balloon" faces is attracting an audience. In recent times Australian film-makers seem to have a fixiation with dark, depressing subjects. After "Jindabyne", "Romulus, My Father", "The Home Song Stories", "Little Fish" and "Candy", my fear is that audiences are looking for something a whole lot lighter. While all were critically acclaimed, they emotionally overwhelmed many mainstream cinemagoers. "The Black Balloon" is worth a look at! Recommended. 3 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "THE BLACK BALLOON" stars .......
Rhys Wakefield ["Home and Away"]; Luke Ford ["Kokoda" and TV'S "McLeod's Daughters"]; Erik Thomson [TV'S "Xena: Warrior Princess", "All Saints " and ""The Alice""]; Gemma Ward ["Pink Pyjamas" and "The Stranger"]; Firass Dirani ["lOST", "Pitch Black", "The Marine" and TV'S "Power Rangers Mystic Force"] and 2003 IF Award winner Toni Collette ["Muriel's Wedding", "In Her Shoes", "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Evening"] as Maggie Mollison.
"THE BLACK BALLOON" was .......
directed by Elissa Down ["Samantha Stewart, Aged 14", "The Cherry Orchard" and "Summer Angst"]; screenplay by Elissa Down ["Samantha Stewart, Aged 14", "The Bathers" and "Summer Angst"] and Jimmy Jack ["The Cherry Orchard"]; art direction by Matthew Putland ["Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles", "House of Wax" and "See No Evil"]; costume design by Claire Granville ["Victim" and "I Love Sarah"]; production design by Nicholas McCallum ["The Nugget", "Gettin' Square" and "Kokoda"]; edited by Veronika Jenet ["La Leçon de piano", "Rabbit-Proof Fence" and "Love's Brother"]; cinematography by Denson Baker ["We Have Decided Not To Die", "Deck Dogz" and "La Même nuit"]; original music by Michael Yezerski ["The Other Son", "La Même nuit" and "Cross Life"]. Who's Who?

Rhys Wakefield Luke Ford Toni Collette Erik Thomson Gemma Ward Lloyd Allison-Young Nathin Butler Lisa Kowalski Firass Dirani Sally Evans Aaron Glennane Andy Meritakis Jonathan Nguyen Henry Nixon Ngoc Phan

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Thomas Mollison Charlie Mollison Maggie Mollison Simon Mollison Jackie Masters James Chris Sally Russell Girl on Bus Bucko Daniel Tyler Trevor Teacher's Aide

Run Time 93 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Icon - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.