The Rage in Placid Lake

Remember [Some Kind of Wonderful](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0094006/)  ? One of those fantastic John Hughes films that all of us of a *certain age*  grew up with. Plot summary, really quickly: dumb boy chases stuck-up popular “pretty” girl, while more or less ignoring his platonic female friend, who realises she wants him bad. I remember spending most of the film yelling (in my head) at the dumb boy because **anyone**  could see that he was chasing a stuck-up bitch, and his platonic friend, played by Mary Stuart Master-bate-son was a genuinely good person, and a hottie to boot! I think that movie had something to do with my attraction to slightly butch women (although Bobbie Walkem in year 8 and 9 probably had something to do with it as well. I wonder where she is now?).

Anyway. I bring this up now, in a piece about because I spent most of this movie yelling (in my head) at poor sweet Placid to stop doing this stupid crap he’s doing and hook up with Rose Byrne. The basic premise here is simple: we’ve got this square peg who decides he’s had enough of trying to fit into round holes, and makes himself, well, round. He finds himself a round hole at a Sydney insurance company and sets about fitting in. There are some great fish-out-of-water moments when he tries to figure out how things work in this bizarre fairy-tale office, but the point here is that he’s trying to fit in. His self-centered parents are no help, and the above-mentioned platonic friend is going though a similar process, but in reverse, so she’s out of commission too.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable film, typical Aussie feel-good stuff. Ben Lee is cute as always, Rose Byrne (currently appearing in no less than 2 other films) is hot as always, the writing is sharp, funny and suitably satirical, and the direction keeps things moving quite well.

This is Ben Lee’s acting debut as well, and he plays an uncomfortable geeky person as if from experience. He skulks from scene to scene has if he’s wearing a hair shirt, and is only ever really comfortable-looking when he’s with Rose’s character. I can’t say how good an actor he is from just this one film, as he could be an uncomfortable geek in real life too. He was good to watch though, and I want to see him in more films.

Trivia #1: Ben Lee’s girlfriend, Claire Danes, cameos as a guest at a seminar Ben’s character attends. She tries, unsuccessfully, to pick him up.

Trivia #2: Nicholas Hammond, who plays Rose Byrne’s dad, was Spiderman on TV.