After his wife’s murder by an irate client, lawyer Jack Irish (Guy Pearce) leaves the courtroom to roam about his wits with lovable strong man Cam Delray (Aaron Pederson) as a debt collector for horse racing guru Harry Strang (Roy Billing). Unfortunately, Jack is drawn back into unofficial criminal investigations by another past murder and enlists the help of newswoman Linda Hillier (Marta Dusseldorp) while working on the case from his favorite Fitzroy bar.
Car alarms and gunshots interrupt the suave legal bustle and marital bliss to open Bad Debts – the first of two back-to-back 2012 Jack Irish TV movies directed by Jeffrey Walker (Rake) and written by Andrew Knight (SeaChange) from the Peter Temple’s book series. Rough and tumble debt collection gone awry leads to money hidden in the dishwasher and leaving the uncooperative locked in the bathroom before stealing his booze as interest. The shocking start hooks viewers immediately, yet Jack Irish follows the distraught with a zany melancholy, and quirky, laid back Melbourne mood. We laugh even as we sympathize with the sitting alone listening to opera and reluctance to return to the murder scene.
Bad Debts moves fast with conversations carrying Jack’s barely made it to the courtroom history yet also takes its time balancing the slice of life horse races, woodworking, and humor. Long term pain acerbates fatal new crimes, and what should have been an open and shut hit and run case escalates to news reports, awkward funerals, suspicious cars, and calls claiming proof that the original rundown was actually murder. The audience receives information along with the characters, and they must piece together the casually questioned family, inside cop angles, undercover snitches, and testimonies that don’t add up like our investigators. Activists rubbing the wrong high up people the wrong way, those who supposedly won the lottery, and cops elevated to elite security companies don’t want reporters asking questions. Ransacked rooms and stonewalled information keep the danger personal and immediate as the intelligent evidence commands our undivided attention.
Rather than today’s chopped up, clever crosscuts, Jack Irish takes time to linger – observing the slight of hand, quiet emotions, or witty humor. Viewers should perhaps even watch twice to pick up all the case clues, for the police were never called, they just arrived and romantic restaurant meetings lead to writing on the tablecloth and using the bread sticks to lay out the scene of the crime. Charity dinners for social ministries and homeless youth provide intriguing speeches, cheeky banter, overheard arguments, and bathroom confrontations. Which witnesses are cagey, nervous, or afraid to talk about the dockside warehouses becoming a million dollar development? We get to know our characters in flirtatious interludes before dead bodies in the sauna as one by one, everyone surrounding the case ends up dead. Jack Irish grows tense with very little thanks to secret penthouse meetings and chilling politicians smiling in broad daylight because they have ballistics and fingerprints that would pin everything on Jack – and they’d hate for him to lose another woman. Bedroom saucy, blackmail, and bookies collide in cars versus motorcycles, foot pursuits, shootouts, rooftop chases, and explosives. Those debt collection instincts come in handy in finding the evidence before the bad guys do as pool perils and microfilm punchlines blow the lid off the scandal just in time for woodworking at four a.m. and another day at the races.
Widowed former lawyer Jack Irish is not a detective yet dabbles in a major investigation and apologizes for being an inconvenience to the politician calling him a pain in the ass. Frumpled, five o’clock shadow Jack is not a crook but works fixed horse races and isn’t good with his hands but is a woodworking apprentice. Pearce’s multifaceted character was slick in his legal heights yet in Bad Debts Jack is wonderfully unable to pin down despite appearing in almost every scene. He makes notes, both shrewdly piecing together what others miss yet is often out of his depth in a scrappy situation and too downtrodden to care. He’s reluctant to wear the old high-end suits his wife had chosen, and her murder is revisited in one eerie dream sequence with echoes, shadows, and ghosts. Jack’s grief lingers and everyone tells him to drop this current crusade, but he messed up the original case and can fix it now – unlike his wife’s murder. Although in peril almost constantly, this crime has drawn Jack out of his ho-hum, and Marta Dusseldorp’s (A Place to Call Home) reporter Linda Hillier stands her ground in their flirtations and factual exchange. Smart and confident, Linda is smitten nonetheless by Jack’s out of practice gallant. She admits her intrigue, and there’s a certain superb equality to their who’s trying to impress whom banter and kisses amid the shell company paper trails and sharing food. Linda wants to know Jack’s reasons why, and her investigative curiosity means she won’t lay off an award winning scoop even when threatened. She doesn’t want anyone to tell her what to do – even Jack – and Pearce and Dusseldorp combine for delicious performances with great delivery and prop usage upping the details, wine, and chemistry.
Jack Irish utilizes an offbeat, excellent ensemble, and Aaron Pederson’s (Mystery Road) Cam Delray is the muscle always ready with the right weapons or vehicles. He’s fiercely loyal to Roy Billing’s (Underbelly) high rolling, pony playing Harry Strang – serving as his driver, bodyguard, or dog wrangler when not bailing Jack out of sticky situations. Harry studies the horses in his home theater, buying and selling steeds or jockeys to assure victory. He doesn’t like Jack using his contacts for outside work, and Harry tells him not to take on any big jobs when this little side investigation gets his jaguar riddled with bullets. Former law partner Drew Greer (Damien Richardson) is our legalese sounding board, and cranky old school cop Barry Tregear (Shane Jacobson) provides off the record information. He’s always eating, farting, demanding antacids Jack doesn’t have, and leaving his fast food trash in Jack’s car. Old barflies Eric (Terry Norris), Wilbur (John Flaus), and Norm (Ronald Falk) adored Jack’s famous baller father and continue to watch old Australian Football games. Bartender Stan’s (Damien Garvey) Prince of Prussia Hotel is said to be an establishment in a time warp, but they let Jack use the VCR – if only during timeouts as if the taped matches were still in real time. The “Fitzroy Youth Club’s” combined fount of knowledge, however, means they can help take down corruption without ever leaving their bar stools. German master craftsman Charlie Taub (Vadim Glowna) also does the work in his head and expects Jack to know all the measurements, too. Charlie calls Jack a bother who never leaves yet becomes more of a father to Jack then his legendary dad – providing wisdom in the woodwork to counter everything else happening in Jack’s crazy world.
Fitzroy football regalia and on location Melbourne shooting steep viewers in Jack Irish’s unique mood while photo finish horse racing, soothing carpentry tools, one cool Studebaker, and a spiffy bachelor pad pepper the chill atmosphere. Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” opening theme sums up the contemporary, edgy underbelly; yet answering machines, boxes of file folders, record players, and Nat King Cole toppers provide classy throwbacks. Newspapers and radio reports anchor the booze, take out, pictures of our late wife, and cluttered melancholy while graffiti in the streets and low camera angles visually reflect the humdrum. Bad Debts is well directed with a camera freely following Jack. The audience is allowed to travel along within the movement and depth of field, visually making strides on the case be it down the highway or hesitantly entering dangerous territory. Industrial buildings and jagged rooftops are inconvenient and perilous, but the natural daylight filming refreshingly offers full cityscape views. Bad Debts feels dirty and mature with nudity and cursing adults – a lived in, tangible place rather than a sleek, unrealistic New York cop show with cinematic leaps and digitally graded panoramas.
Jack Irish remains under-seen stateside perhaps because the series isn’t easy to check in any one box. Bad Debts debuts with serious crime drama and sardonic social commentary blended together in a sophisticated yet quirky caper. The charming performances and intelligent material make Jack Irish more than worthy as your next must see obsession.
stills courtesy of ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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Kristin Battestella writes articles, editorials, and reviews for several websites, magazines, and print publications including I Think, Therefore I Review and Search Magazine. Previously a traditionally published author of speculative fiction and the Fate and Fangs vampire novels, Kristin’s DIY Halloween how-tos and Kbatz Krafts articles have been featured at http://HorrorAddicts.net and in two Horror Addicts Guide to Life anthologies. In addition to sewing and @KbatzReviews Youtube vlogs; Kristin can be heard on the Women InSession podcast at http://InSessionFilm.com alongside her written classic film discourse. Kristin is also active in the local author community, having chaired writing events and conferences with the South Jersey Women Authors.