My Review - One Night
Streaming on Paramount
My Rating 8/10
After watching a number of series like One Night and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart depicting domestic violence and sexual assaults on women by male perpetrators I long for another show like Ted Lasso or Poldark to convince me that not all men are sexual predators.
Saying that One Night is a fine example of Australian cinema storytelling
I really had only two small criticisms and they were not about the performances of the actors but more about the little things that make a movie or series excellent rather than very good.
Mikaela Binns-Rorke who gave a very convincing performance as young Tess however she bared no resemblance whatsoever to Jodie Whittaker who is superb as the adult Tess . Perhaps the reason is because we don't have the great pool of actors that overseas productions have to choose from but when the drama of the series centres around the traumatic experiences of Tess and her two teenage girl friends 20 years previously the younger characters should I think be easy to identify Bridgette Armstrong resembled the adult Simone as did Bella Ridgway who played young Hat resembled the adult Hat .
One Night is the story of three women whose bond is all but destroyed when Simone anonymously publishes an unauthorised novel recalling the terror of that one night.
The traumatic events of one night 20 years previously comes back to haunt Tess beautifully played by Jodie Whittaker who has returned home to Sydney from living in the U. K for years with her wife Vicki and their two children Harper and Jude.
Nicole da Silva is also very impressive as Simone the author of the book that causes so much drama she seeks solace in alcohol which is a complete contrast to Tess who has remained sober since the trauma of that fateful night .
Yael Stone who plays Hat the third friend involved is an interesting character who holds the key to much of this story.
There are some fine male performers also in one night especially the two Calley brothers Trevor played by Errol Shand and Joey played by George Mason.
The only other small criticism I had that irritated me was Noni Hazlehurst's thick overdone Scottish accent her character Mary the unkempt vulgar local pub owner had lived in Australia for over 30 years with her two equally unpleasant sons Joey and Trevor so surely I thought that she would have lost some of her broad accent but no she sounded like she just stepped out of the Edinburg Tattoo.
Emily Ballou and Fiona Seres have created a disturbing,interesting and entertaining story which is impressively directed by Lisa Matthews and Catherine Millar and if this production from Easy Tiger Productions and Motive Pictures is an indication of an increase in Australian movie and television content on our streaming services I think we are in for some quality productions.
