Apparently not, or not as often as might be healthy.
> Men's Group
Director: Michael Joy
Cast: Grant Dodwell, Don Reid, Paul Gleeson, Steve Rodgers, Steve Le Marquand, Paul Tassone
Rating: (R16)
Three stars
Review by Mark Orton
Men's Group is an Australian film based on the burgeoning movement of men using quasi-therapy sessions to overcome issues through communication and listening.
From the opening cinema-verite exchanges, jumpy hand-held camera and out-of-focus shots, Men's Group is at pains to establish its relationship to the actual.
Though docudrama this is not.
The actors themselves have chiselled, gritty characters from pre-shoot workshops, but they are still caricatures and not very likeable ones at that.
Paul, Freddy, Cecil, Lucas, Moses and Alex meet once a week in Sydney's inner west to listen to each other.
Details from their lives are interspersed throughout, but never amount to anything more than a superficial sketch.
What they hope to achieve is uncertain. Indeed, it takes a while for the men to embrace their issues and perhaps that is the point.
The men are uniformly troubled and, as such, they lack empathy. Slowly things change, but the film-makers themselves need an editorial session.
Men's Group gradually rewards perseverance through cleverly constructed tension, only to tease out an overwrought ending. This Men's Group needs a dose of Fight Club.
Best thing: Close tie between Alex's potty mouth and Moses' beard.
Worst thing: Sense of story. What exactly is being said here about men?
See it with: Anyone not easily offended by excessive profanities.
