The Christmas season is once again upon us. A time for giving. A time for good cheer. A time for celebrating. A time for stuffing yourself with too much food and beer. It’s also that time of year when the family gets together to enjoy the company of one another. For some families out there, this may be bliss. But for most? Well, it’s usually an exercise in misery. Depending on the fragility of the family in question, of course. Christmas cards tend to opt for the image of the harmonious smiling family sitting by the Christmas tree in peace and harmony. Thank crap for the movies where we can at least get a slice of exaggeration regarding what Christmas is truly like for most of us.
Sure, the dysfunctional Christmas family get-together in film isn’t a new concept. I’m sure that we’ve all seen National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation countless times. But it’s rare to see an Australian slice of Christmas family dysfunction presented on film. Back in 1998, there was one such film that attempted to fill this niche. A relatively low-budget and raucous slice of Australian comedy known as Crackers.
Upon release, it was burdened with a lousy poster that did little to sell the movie. The poster contained a simple image of a ragtag family in front of a red background. Not exactly the most striking of poster images. The title of the film wasn’t exactly a stand-out either. But given my family's love for Christmas Vacation and the many comparisons made by the positive trade reviews, it resulted in a family trip to the cinema to see this slice of Australian Christmas.
I remember it vividly. We were the only four in the cinema at the time. I guess the underwhelming poster did little to spark interest in the majority. Maybe it was a case of bad marketing? Most Australian films tend to have terrible marketing as is. Despite a lackluster poster, the film hidden underneath was anything but rubbish. I feel it’s an overlooked Australian gem just waiting to be rediscovered.
Crackers tells the tale of the Dredge family as they indulge in the misery of one another's company during the Christmas break. The film is told through the eyes of only child Joey (Daniel Kellie) as he struggles to come to terms with his mother dating again after the tragic loss of his father in an aircraft accident. Not coping with the loss of his father, Joey has developed a bit of a death wish as he keeps chucking himself off of school roofs in a desperate plea for help.
Realizing that they both need a break, his mother, Hilary (Susan Lyons), arranges for them to spend Christmas at her parents' house. Making matters worse, she’s also invited her new boyfriend, Bruno (Peter Rowsthorn), and his angry teenage son, Angus, by whom Joey is constantly antagonized.
The film wastes no time in setting up the stakes. The family packs the car and embarks when the first misfortunes strike. During the car ride, Joey is called a “dickhead” and beaten on by Angus, while the family station wagon is almost totaled in a head-on collision. If there was ever a foreshadow of the chaos to come.
Upon arrival, they’re treated to a meal that consists of charred grilled burnt sausages, lousy-looking potato salad, plenty of white bread covered with thick slabs of butter and a bottle or two of beer to go with it. Angry blow flies swarm about the table as the mean old cuss of a grandfather, Jack (Terry Hill), attempts to kill them with fly spray. Nothing has ever screamed Australian Christmas more so than this.
The stern and stubborn Jack quickly turns his attention to Bruno. Bruno and Jack couldn’t be more different if they tried. Bruno, a fashion photographer from the city, and Jack, a stubborn blue-collar worker from the ‘burbs. Worlds collide as Jack belittles Bruno’s manhood. Tensions further escalate with the arrival of Jack’s estranged father, Albert (Warren Mitchell), an old scoundrel Glaswegian fresh out of prison. With the house packed to the rafters, young Joey is forced into the tool-shed to sleep alongside Albert.
Much like Christmas Vacation before it, the film plays as a loose series of sketches during the days leading up to Christmas. Everyone in the family has their own drama of sorts. Jack still harbors a grudge against his cheating father for abandoning him and his mother when he was a kid. Bruno tries to make an impression on Jack but fails miserably at every turn. Aunt Dotty (Valerie Bader) is a frumpy, lonely woman whose best years are fading away. The grandmother, Violet (Maggie King), is ever-so cheerful and tries to keep the family together but is utterly oblivious to the fracturing seams.
Meanwhile, Joey is confronted with the devastating reality of Bruno potentially becoming his new stepfather as he learns that his mother is pregnant. As Joey navigates through the trials and tribulations of dysfunction, he finds solace in his kinship with Albert. Eventually, a through line develops as the pair strike up a deal to fix up an old weathered sailboat to give as a Christmas gift to Jack.
The comedy is mainly situational, but Director David Swann does well to keep escalating without ever going overboard. The jokes come quickly as it moves from day to day in the build to Christmas. As Murphy’s Law states: anything that can go wrong will go wrong. For what’s Christmas without the occasional fistfight at the local pub, mince pies spiked with dope or even the family dog being accidentally burnt to a crisp on the good old Aussie barbie?
It’s difficult not to compare Crackers to another popular 90’s Australian comedy, The Castle. Both films play a large chunk of their comedy at the expense of the quirks of the modern suburban Australian family. But whereas the Kerrigan family is a rather sweet-natured family with only a hint of dysfunction bubbling underneath, the Dredge family straight up wears its dysfunction on its sleeves for all to see. But for anyone who has endured the chaos of such a family, it’s still remarkably relatable, even if it is incredibly broad in stereotype.
How many times have we all heard that same story of the Christmas from hell spent with the dreaded in-laws recounted by our married friends? Or those days spent with family members you may not always like but have to love anyway? Or those dreaded Christmas lunch conversations where your elders judge your every decision through a thin lens of discontent and disappointment? Or worse still, the dreaded conversations where they compare you to someone else in the extended family as if you could never live up to their preferred golden child? We’ve all heard these stories time and time again. We’ve all undoubtedly lived these moments time and time again.
This is where Crackers scores many of its laughs for me, as it dials these situations up to 11. The big laugh-out-loud set pieces aside, the little cringe moments, such as Jack’s not-so-subtle critiques towards Bruno’s perceived lack of manhood, make Crackers excel the most in its relatability.
But even amidst this chaos, the film never forgets to remind us that the ties which shackle us together are what truly makes the Christmas spirit meaningful. As doomed as this family seemingly is on the surface, underneath still pumps a sincere beating heart as this gaggle of geese eventually learns the true meaning of Christmas through tragedy.
As such, it always baffled me why this film never caught on with a mainstream audience. Even here in Australia, it seems to be mostly forgotten. Maybe it was just too Australian for its own good? Perhaps it was a victim of a terrible marketing campaign? With a delightful ensemble cast of misfits, I would have thought this would have more legs than it did. Whatever the reason, it’s a shame it never got the attention it deserved.
Growing up Australian meant I couldn’t always relate to that picturesque White Christmas that American films love to showcase. But I could more than relate to the sting of a Dry Summer Christmas with a smoking barbecue out the back. Sure, perhaps it’s not the greatest film this country has ever produced, but it certainly has its charms that many Australians could easily relate to. In the tradition of the great Australian comedy, Crackers piles misery on top of self-deprecation but also manages to find a good heart underneath. In that sense, it’s very larrikin in spirit.
- Daniel M
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