Lucky Break

Lucky Break; Comedy, Australia, 1994; D: Ben Lewin, S: Gia Carides, Anthony LaPaglia, Rebecca Gibney

Sophie writes erotic and kitschy romance novels which mostly play out on some coast or a famous city. While speaking out her imagination in a library, she draws attention of Eddie who falls in love with her, but she rejects him and leaves. The reason is that she has a partially paralyzed leg from polio. But after she breaks her leg, she has a perfect excuse to hide her deficiency and seduce Eddie. But her cast accidentally hurts his tongue and then she even meets his fiance Gloria. Eddie breaks his engagement and lands in bed with Sophie, but then the police arrest him because he smuggled jewels. After he is released, they become a couple.

This light and average romantic comedy, somewhere also titled as "Paperback Romance", did not manage to gather acclaim or hype neither in its country of origin nor outside. The exposition is somewhat solid and coherent, but after the demented scene where Eddie's tongue gets wounded, the movie slowly transforms into a boring and slightly iritating entertainment where the ending turns out unsatisfying and too "neat". In this jungle of uneven scenes and ideas, the only bright spot is the excellent Gia Carides in the role of the heroine with a slightly paralyzed leg. Unfortunately, the whole story seems rather paralyzed. A few genuinely inspiring and comic moments can be found here and there, yet this twisted-sweet comedy generally lacks spark and wit.

Grade:+