God bless you, Rolf De Heer.
After winning international acclaim with his most recent feature, 10 Canoes, much loved Australian director Rolf De Heer went off in search of something a little bit different for his next project, a little something to call his own. De Heer found his muse in the silent slapstick comedies of the 20s and 30s, in the works of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy. A loving recreation of that era - right down to the 4:3 aspect ratio, intertitles, hand cranked camera and jaunty score - Dr. Plonk is a pure cinematic joy, a goofy sci-fi adventure with a socially aware core that, though it certainly reminds why the original films of the type generally ran shorter than this film's 87 minute run time, just sparkles when it gets the mix right.
The year is 1907 and the esteemed Dr. Plonk - scientist, inventor and forward thinker - is living life as usual with his loving wife, pet terrier and deaf-mute, love lorn lab assistant. Life is good for Dr. Plonk. He has love, wealth, a comfortable life and the esteem of his peers and the powers of the day and everything seems as good as can possibly be until, one day, he discovers a mathematical formula that predicts the world will come to an end one hundred and one years in the future, in the year 2008! This must be stopped! He rushes to the Houses of Parliament to warn the Prime Minister but the good doctor is laughed out of the office. The world is coming to an end? Where is the proof of such a ridiculous claim? There is only one thing to do. Dr. Plonk must get proof and the only way to do that is to build a time machine. This is no problem at all for an intellect as large as Plonk's and in no time at all he and his lab assistant Paulus are whizzing back and forth through time in a spring loaded contraption that is little more than a plain wooden box.
The beauty of Dr. Plonk lies in both the performances and the attention to detail. While there is certainly no on screen talent on the level of a Keaton or Chaplin, Nigel Lunghi as Plonk and Paul Blackwell as Paulus are both fine physical performers clearly loving the chance to play a bit of Keystone Kops madness. The humor is broad as broad can be, sharp and energetic and physically demanding, and the duo pull it off with enough energy to remind why film became the dominant media in the first place. There can be magic in those strips of cellulite and this is a film that tries - and largely succeeds - to get the audience to experience that completely fresh. While nostalgia certainly plays a part in things it is more that there is a purity and beauty to it that comes from its simplicity. This is film making at its most basic and it reminds that in the hands of a skilled director the audience can be taken anywhere with nothing more than a wooden box.
The film does, however, run a bit longer than it is able to sustain. There is a socially conscious element that is never fully developed and that effects the pacing somewhat so that things drag some in the mid section. There are moments when the gimmick runs a little bit thin, when you realize that perhaps an hour and a half of people falling down with no dialog may be a bit too much and that perhaps this would have been better suited as a long-form short than a full feature length film. This is very likely the case but the energy level returns by the end and the weaknesses are quickly forgiven.
Dr. Plonk is the sort of film very unlikely to ever receive a theatrical release anywhere outside of the festival circuit and also a film very definitely best appreciated on the big screen. Make the effort if you have the chance.
