This is a well-meaning film that will have a guaranteed audience amongst Australians who love the Paul Kelly song it is based on.

It’s an interesting premise, to make a narrative song into a feature film, and the writing and directing credentials of partners Nick Waterman and Megan Washington seem fitting. 

If you know the song, you know it is written from the point of view of a man in prison reminiscing about the family Christmas Day he is missing out on. One aspect of that is the gravy that accompanies the Christmas dinner, something that perhaps was once his responsibility. 

In the film, this is Joe (Daniel Henshall who was so menacing as Dolly in The Royal Hotel) and we are briefly introduced to him within his family where he is the one that cooks the meals and seems to be full of simmering anger. It’s this that sends him to prison, leaving behind wife Rita (Agathe Rousselle) and children Angus (Jonah Wren Phillips), Frank (Rose Statham), and Dolly (Izzy Westlake).

In prison he is is bullied by thug Red (Kieran Darcy-Smith) and saved by wise old timer Noel (Hugo Weaving) who reminded me of the character Red in The Shawshank Redemption. it feels like a representation of prison by someone who has watched a lot of prison movies. This may be accentuated by the settings which are obviously low budget representations – the yard the prisoners exercise in looks just like an empty swimming pool and the hallways and common rooms look a bit like an empty hospital. I don’t mind this, it feels inventive and stylistic and a bit brave, but it definitely makes the story feels like a fairytale that we are being told.

There is a lot of dialogue. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought this was a play that had been relatively prosaically transferred to screen. I wonder if again it is the low budget or the lack of experience of the filmmakers that they were unable to inject more dynamics into the story or build our understanding through what we are seeing rather than what we are being told by the characters.

There are some familiar faces – Briggs as a prison cook, Kim Gyngell as a family member and even a fleeting glimpse of Paul Kelly as a bus driver. Henshell and Weaving carry most of the story and do it convincingly.

Overall, it feels a little bit underwhelming. A nostalgia trip that really only comes together as the Paul Kelly song plays over the end credits. As we hear him sing about Dan and Angus and Rita, about Stella flying in from the coast, the pieces fall into place but it feels not quite enough to make the film compelling viewing.