- There's probably no family in the world quite as content and pleasant as the Kerrigan family in Rob Sitch's The Castle, but if there were such a family in real life, I have to agree that they'd be Australian. I only visited the country once when I stayed in Melbourne for about a week, but everyone I met was unrelentingly friendly and upbeat, even in the midst of a wildfire outbreak. So too are the Kerrigans, that is until the nearby airport expansion plans threaten to force them out of their home.
- The Kerrigans are arranged in orbit around the family patriarch Darryl (Michael Caton), a lovable dope who stores his most prized possessions in the pool room and constantly compliments his wife Sal (Anne Tenney) on her exotic culinary skills, which range from seasoned chicken to meat loaf. Older son Steve (Anthony Simcoe) spends his days obsessing over the Trading Post ads and younger son Dale (Stephen Curry) digs holes when he's not busy narrating the film. Daughter Tracey (Sophie Lee) is set to be married to a Greek kickboxer (Eric Bana), and remaining brother Wayne (Wayne Hope) is doing a prison stint for armed robbery. I know that last bit sounds pretty serious, but he's the only member of the family who looks like he isn't constantly enjoying his life before the airport plans are announced.
- Although the film's plot ostensibly revolves around the Kerrigans and their neighbors (Costas Kilias, Monty Maizels, Lynda Gibson) blocking the airport expansion with the help of a down-on-his-luck lawyer (Tiriel Mora) and a charitable Queen's Counsel (Bud Tingwell), the idiosyncrasies of the Kerrigan family's home life are much more likely to stick in my mind. I've already found myself muttering "Tell 'im he's dreamin'" after encountering unreasonably high price tags, and I could easily see myself incorporating "Looks like everybody's kicked a goal!" into my daily vocabulary. Between this and The Dish, Sitch has pretty much cornered the market on charming Australians, and the entire world is a better place for it.
