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Matching Jack
Matching Jack
	Australian poster
Directed by	Nadia Tass
Screenplay by	Lynne Renew; David Parker;
Story by	Lynne Renew
Produced by	Richard Keddie; David Parker; Nadia Tass;
Starring	Jacinda Barrett; James Nesbitt; Tom Russell; Kodi Smit-McPhee; Richard Roxburgh;
Cinematography	David Parker
Edited by	Mark Warner
Music by	Paul Grabowsky
Production; company	Cascade Films
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	19 August 2010;
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Box office	$258,011

Matching Jack is a 2010 Australian drama film directed by Nadia Tass from a screenplay by Lynne Renew and David Parker, based on an unfilmed script by Renew entitled Love and Mortar.

Plot

Life seems idyllic for Marisa and her son, Jack, until a poor performance at a school soccer match ends with Jack in hospital and Marisa trying to find her husband, David, who is interstate at a conference. In fact, David is planning to leave Marisa for his current mistress, Veronica, with his phone off and not a care in the world.

Jack is diagnosed with leukaemia and the only possibility of a cure is if David has had a child from one of his many flings who could be a bone marrow donor. Marisa looks back through his diaries, figures when he could have been having affairs, and goes out door knocking. Unsuspecting women face a desperate mother as Marisa searches high and low for possibilities and the full scale of David's infidelity is revealed.

Meanwhile, Jack befriends Finn, a young Irish boy in the next bed. He has been travelling the world with his father, Connor. Initial disdain turns to mutual respect as both Marisa and Connor find their own ways to deal with their respective sons' illnesses. Whilst during this as David convinces a now pregnant Veronica to keep the child hoping it will be a viable donor for Jack, at the same time Mariasa comes across Janice, whose defiantly rebellious fifteen-year-old daughter Kerry might just be David's daughter making her an older paternal half-sister and therefore a life saver for Jack. But although Kerry (overjoyed on having a possible sibling and to be a notable protective and supporting big sister) is more than keen to help her supposedly new found younger brother, her mother Janice has other ideas on giving her consent for helping Jack.

Cast

Jacinda Barrett as Marissa
James Nesbitt as Connor, an Irish sailor
Tom Russel as Jack, Marissa's son
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Finn, Connor's son, who befriends Jack
Richard Roxburgh as David, Marissa's unfaithful husband
Julia Harari as Young Doctor
Yvonne Strahovski as Veronica, David's pregnant mistress
Alexandra Schepisi as Janice, a previous fling of David
Nicole Gulasekharam as Kerry, Janice's rebel teenage daughter and possible half sister to Jack
Gareth Yuen as Radiologist
Amanda Muggleton as Home Nurse
Julia Blake as Cleo
Krista Vendy as Angela
Daniela Farinacci as Ange

Production

Matching Jack was directed by Nadia Tass and David Parker.^[1] The screenplay by Lynne Renew was based on an unfilmed script by Renew^[2] entitled Love and Mortar.^{[citation needed]}

The hospital used for shooting the film was the old Royal Women's Hospital in Carlton, Melbourne.^[3]

The film was produced by Tass and Parker's studio Cascade Films, in association with the film investment agencies Film Victoria and Screen Australia. It was filmed on location in Melbourne in 2009.

Release

Matching Jack premiered at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival. It also screened at Palm Beach International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival, Internationales Filmwochenende Wurzburg (Wurzburg, Germany), Tiburon International Film Festival (Tiburon, California), and Newport Beach Film Festival (California). It was also screened in the out of competition section of the 10th Pune International Film Festival, in Pune, India.

20th Century Fox distributed it to 185 national screens in August 2010, the widest Fox release of an Australian film since 2008's Australia.

Reception

Matching Jack opened at number eight at the Australian box office on its opening weekend, taking $258,011.

The film won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2011 Milan International Film Festival. Matching Jack was also honoured with Cannes Cinephile Prix de Jury Bel Age at the 2011 Cinephiles festival at Cannes in May 2011.

Reviews

The film holds a score of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[4]

Reviewers' comments included:^{[citation needed]} Leonard Maltin: "A deeply emotional film, clearly made with tender loving care. Kodi Smit-McPhee gives an utterly remarkable performance in a cast full of fine actors".

David Stratton, The Australian: "Wonderfully acted and scripted… Smit-McPhee, particularly, brings grace, dignity and child-like optimism to his character, and he is heart-breakingly impressive as Finn".

David Tiley, Screenhub: "A terrific, passionate, sobby, craftful heartgrabber, a grown up film about a vast and honest emotional arc".

Jim Schembri, The Sydney Morning Herald: "It's a no-holds-bar emotional slam dunk as a young mother (superbly played by Jacinda Barrett) desperately searches for a bone marrow match for her son from among the illegitimate children fathered by her promiscuous husband (Richard Roxburgh). A beautiful, moving, unashamedly melodramatic film that rouses tears and joy in equal measure."

References

^ "Tass, Nadia & Parker, David - Matching Jack", Urban Cinefile, 19 August 2010] accessed 4 December 2012
^ Gonzalez, Miguel. "Matching Jack: Nadia Tass, hard to match", Encore, 24 2010
^ McFarlane, Brian (September 2010). "Comedy, Tragedy, Life: An interview with Nadia Tass and David Parker" (PDF). Metro Magazine. Australian Teachers of Media Inc. (ATOM). pp. 16–21. ISSN 0312-2654. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
^ "Matching Jack". Rotten Tomatoes.

Sources

Murphy, Damien (14 August 2010). "Life renewed: Save son and see the world". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Retrieved on 28 August 2010.
Mathieson, Craig (19 August 2010). "The Son Shines Through". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Retrieved on 28 August 2010.
Gonzalez, Miguel (24 August 2010). "Jack, no match for Salt". Encore Magazine (Focal Attractions). Retrieved on 28 August 2010.
Industry News (18 May 2011). "[1]". Encore Magazine (Focal Attractions). Retrieved on 30 May 2011.
NIXCO (25 May 2011). "[2]". Inside Film. Retrieved on 30 May 2011.
Newsflash (12 May 2011) "[3]". Urban Cinephile. Retrieved on 5 June 2011.
Schembri, Jim (19 August 2010). "[4]". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 5 June 2011.