Hugo Weaving, Web Weaving, Wendy Cracked a Walnut, Almost, Review
 
Hugo Weaving, Wendy Cracked a Walnut, Almost, Eyebrows
 

n.  Hugo Weaving ~ Wendy Cracked a Walnut 

aka   Almost…. (US title)

AU Movie 1990:     Hugo Weaving content 22%    84 mins
Character: Jake ~ Charming, caddish rogue & Ideal Romantic Man
Cast: Rosanna Arquette   Wendy Bruce Spence   Ronnie   Hugo Weaving  Jake     Douglas Hedge    Mr. Leveredge   Dennis Hoey  Sonny Taggart   Susan Lyons   Caroline Jeraldine Sylbing   Mary  Kerry Walker   Deidre    Doreen Warburton   Elsie 
Dir: Michael Pattinson  Wri: Suzanna Hawley
Availablity: Deleted. 2nd hand VHS available UK, AU, US.

Hugo Weaving: Wendy Cracked a Walnut, Almost Plot/Comments:

This is an abysmal film, though it has its moments of quiet charm and shows a lot of potential.
     Wendy has been married for 10 years to Ronnie. They are 'comfortable' but she feels ignored, burying herself in romantic adventure trash novels. When he is stuck in the bush for several weeks, missing their anniversary, she meets ~ and is persused by ~ Jake, her rakish and charming Ideal Man (Hugo Weaving).
      As he takes her out for romantic meals, ballroom dancing and walking in the rain, she begins to lose interest in her marriage. Eventually, she leaves her job and gives in to Jake's relentless hunting, submitting to him in the delights of her candlelit bathroom.

     But all is not well: her workmates realise that she has taken $1000 from the accounts and later see her dolled up in designer gear; Jake starts throwing spinballs about the same amount missing from his company…and then the camera pulls away to reveal that she is actually talking to herself: Jake is purely a projected figment of her romantic imagination.
     About four endings later, she is suddenly living happily ever after with her hubby in an 80s tackarama theme pub; all thought of severe mental illness thrown out the window with any hope of a decent film.

While I admit to a personal knee-jerk reaction against 80s synths and TV-style direction, Wendy Cracked a Walnutstill plays as a car crash of two different movies with a hacked-up editing job and a forced 'neat' ending to shoehorn it into the romantic comedy market. It is an unsuccessful Frankenstein mongrel of Romancing the Stone, Harvey and Fight Club.
Hugo Weaving, Wendy Cracked a Walnut, Almost

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Typical Hugo Weaving Quotes:

  • Wendy: "I just need to get out of these wet clothes"                                   Jake, smirking: "Can I do anything?"
  • "Stay with me and you can do what you want. Be what you want"

 

Comments and Queries:
 

  • Although they have no scenes in Wendy Cracked a Walnut, Bruce Spence also worked with Weaving in The Dirtwater Dynasty. He will appear in TheReturn of the King as the Mouth of Sauron.  See The Usual Suspectsfor a huge list of recurring Weaving co-workers.
  • Weaving speaks in a deep, slow Brit-Aussie voice and sounds distinctly like he's suffering from a cold towards the end of the film.


 

Bruce Spence is solid and sympathetic as the clunky husband, Rosanna Arquette is inoffensively ditzy as the cracked Wendy, and Hugo Weaving is all flashy rogueishness as Jake. But the whole thing seems so disjointed it's not even froth; just bubbles on the breeze.

Worth getting for Weaving but keep the fwd button primed.
Hugo Weaving, Wendy Cracked a Walnut, Almost, Rosanna Arquette

Hugo Weaving content: 


Another really peculiar choice for Hugo Weaving (see Reckless Kelly ).
     He gets to play the rake and scoundrel with aplomb; controlled, relentless, charming, intense and arrogant. 
     However, Jake, as a figment of the Ideal Romantic Figure, is constructed as a wholly 2D character with no emotional depth. We see only the Perfect Fantasy Figure from Wendy's point of view. He is there purely as a plot device, not a character; a piece of meat for Wendy's hormonally-starved imagination, and there's not a lot for Weaving to do except be smooth and charming and get his kit off.
Hugo Weaving, Wendy Cracked a Walnut, Almost, Strides