I guess the most immediately noticeable thing about Three Summers is that its writer/director is Ben Elton. Seemingly, he has been living in Australia for some time and this is I guess his take on his adopted home. The set-up is quite good, with the action taking place over three summers at a music festival in Western Australia called Westival. While it has a romantic comedy as its main plot thread, it is essentially fairly plot-less and is much more a character-driven ensemble piece, which focuses on many Aussie stereotypes. As such, it mixes a lot of humour with serious social issues, such as racism.
I have to say, I found this one to be a very enjoyable affair. There were enough characters and varied goings-on at the festival to ensure it always remained entertaining and if something isn't working so great then something else is sure to come along soon to take us in a different direction. Like most comedies, it is only sporadically laugh-out-loud funny but it was definitely funny reasonably often. I found Robert Sheehan's uptight Theremin player to be the most consistently funny element of the story. His rocky romance with the rather gorgeous Rebecca Breeds was well done too I thought. The film probably floundered most when it went for the serious stuff, such as racism and bigotry. It was a little heavy-handed and contrived to be honest but fair play for introducing a bit of social consciousness into the mix at least. The music on the other hand was a lot surer footed, with some particularly interesting folk-Theremin fusions - which is not the kind of thing you hear every day, lets be honest. All-in-all, I definitely would put this down as a very fun bit of Aussie comedy.
