Children of the Revolution

Certain films are historically inevitable. Not, apparently, Peter Duncan's Children of the Revolution. Eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a comedy about Stalin and Communist revolutionaries seems dated. Like a Ronald Reagan joke, it just ain't funny any more.

Joan Fraser (Judy Davis, whose relentless furor makes you brace every time she appears) is a Communist zealot in 1953 Australia. It's not a popular calling, so she writes letters to the one person who will sympathize with her -- Joe Stalin (a brutally mugging F. Murray Abraham). He extends an invite to Joan and they have an unforgettable night -- he dies and she gets pregnant.

Ignorant of his lineage, little Joe (a pliant Richard Roxburgh) follows in mom's footsteps, becoming head of the national police union and bringing Australia to the brink of civil war in 1990. Mom, though, disapproves and acts to stop him.

Film-school grad that he is, Duncan is intent on showcasing his film knowledge and expertise, spoofing every major genre. In his first feature, however, he wants to cram it all under the blanket of black comedy, believing ideological fanaticism to be inherently funny.

It can be: note Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. But that film had timeliness as well as genius. Eight years of rapid change is a lot to cover, and Duncan's Parthian shot goes wide. There is talent here -- if only all films suffered from over-ambition -- and a bright cameo by Geoffrey Rush, this year's Best Actor Oscar winner for Shine. But Duncan's timing, historic and comic, is off, dooming these Children of the Revolution to defeat. At the Avon.

-- Robert Furlong