Accidents Happen

Overview

No offence to anyone who may have been born with the surname Conway, but in the world of Andrew Lancaster's new film Accidents Happen, it is an unfortunate birthright. The film opens with Billy Conway witnessing the tragic demise of his elderly neighbour at the hand of a barbecue and a bit too much accelerant — and it all goes downhill from there.

After this disturbing event, the Conway family head along to the cinema to try and distract young Billy from the vision of his melting neighbour; however, due to their incredible bad luck, another accident befalls the poor Conways, which will have far reaching consequences for all of their lives. The rest of the story follows the older Billy (Harrison Gilbertson), eight years after the accident, dealing with life in his own particular way when his mother, brother and father have all given up or escaped from reality.

Filmed in Australia with an all-Australian cast and crew (bar Geena Davis and the writer, Brian Carbee), it's confusing as to why they decided to use American accents and pretend that the whole thing was actually shot in the great US of A. But this is something that you can get over, just, if only just, to give the whole thing a bit of a chance. Starting off as a short film, (which perhaps it suited this form more, though that wouldn't allow for as many of Mamma Conway (Davis)'s spectacularly confused pearls of wisdom), this story is a bit of a slow burn. While I found myself beginning this review in my head halfway through the film, I also got quite caught up in the story and there was a definite tear by the end.

Not many of the characters are entirely likeable, but that is often the point. The film is testimony to the fact that shit happens, and humans can only deal with this fact in the best way that they can — in that, Lancaster has certainly hit the nail on the head. And while its not perfect, neither are we, and so we might as well just get on with it and let ourselves get lost in the story and let the many accidents happen.