Australians are very fond of the battler narrative. We love a good yarn about the everyday man who overcomes adversity through sheer grit and hard work. When our battler triumphs on screen, we raise our glasses in pride because we feel a sense of camaraderie.
But what happens when the battlers are an 11 year old girl and her adopted mutt?
You get Runt, an especially heartwarming tale of determination, resilience and family.
Meet Annie Shearer, the protagonist of Runt. Like her grandfather and father, she is fixated on finding solutions for every problem she stumbles upon. So when Annie finds out that her family is in financial strife, she HAS to fix it. As chance would have it, she discovers an agility competition during the town show which she reckons her best friend, Runt, could win.
There’s just one problem – Runt refuses to listen to Annie if anyone else is watching.
And so begins the pair’s quest to make it to the prestigious Krumpets Dog Show in London, which offers a lifesaving bounty of a quarter of a million dollars.
Lily LaTorre is perfect as Annie, portraying a steely calm and a deep sense of familial loyalty. While Annie has every reason to be egotistically proud of her champion canine, she never indulges in it. Instead, when she wins her first prize, her first instinct is to abet a “kind lie”. This selflessness and empathy is truly endearing.
To be honest, the entire Shearer clan has a place in my heart. Craig Silvey has done a brilliant job of crafting a resourceful and resilient family we can all get behind. The Shearers may not have much but they use what they do have to make the best of things. Their commitment to each other is not shown by public displays of affection but instead through sacrifices for the greater good. It is refreshing to see a more subtle love language take centre stage.
The dichotomy of good versus evil is further pronounced with the calculated portrayals of Earl Robert-Barren and Fergus Fink. Earl is the insatiable fat cat on the hill who is buying up all the land he can for ill-gain. Fergus is the pompous, over the top fink, the exact opposite of Annie’s quiet achiever. Both villains are excellently played by Jack Thompson and Matt Day, with their performances effectively turning the audience against them. We want nothing more than for them to receive their comeuppance. In doing so, we cheer harder for the Shearer family.
This clever mix of well-defined characters made it so to be Team Shearer from the very beginning. My heart hurt with every setback and I silently cheered with every win. By the time we reached the movie’s penultimate scenes, I was close to tears from the emotional havoc.
When we think of family movies, we often think of story that’s easy to follow, entertaining and generally leaves you feeling happy. Runt easily ticks all those boxes but what takes it to the next level is it’s potential to unlock important conversations. In 90 minutes, Runt explores what it means to be family, it explains the concept of the “kind lie”, it reinforces that pedigree (both human and canine) do not guarantee strength (physical or of character).
And THIS is why you shouldn’t just add Runt to your holiday watch list, but to your library of classics.
Runt opens in cinemas, 19th September.