Director: Wayne Blair
Cast: Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell, Chris O'Dowd, Tory Kittles, Eka Darville
Rating: (PG)
5 stars (out of 5)
In Australia, it was a cultural awakening, with Sydney an American rest and recreation centre and Australian singers widening their horizons performing for the troops. In 1968, Aborigines had only just gained full citizenship but nothing much else had changed.
Sisters Gail (Deborah Mailman), Julie (Jessica Mauboy) and Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell) decide to hit out of their mission settlement and perform in Vietnam where the pay is good and the Americans know how to treat people. The Sapphires (Rialto) follows their journey as they add their passing-for-white cousin Kay (Shari Sebbens) to the group and pick up a drunken Irish manager (Chris O'Dowd) who weans them off country and western and on to soul music.
What follows is spirited and uplifting. The pain of being a second-class citizen in your own country is always there, but handled with such lightness that it gains in impact which something more didactic would have failed to do.
Best thing: When the girls start singing, you just melt.
Worst thing: There are some bald patches in the Vietnamese scenes where the small budget shows, but who cares? After all, you are watching this for relationships not explosions.
See it with: Big hair and a Pucci print outfit.
By Christine Powley
