''Buckley's Chance'' is a 2021

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by Tim Brown and starring

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Known for his work in numerous stage, television and film productions, he has received several awards including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, and ...

, Milan Burch and

Victoria Hill Victoria Hill (born 18 February 1971 in Adelaide) is an Australian actress, writer and producer. Early life and career Victoria Hill is the daughter of Robert Hill, a former politician, diplomat and Chancellor of the University of Adelaid ...

. The plot is about a 14-year old boy relocating with his mother to his grandfather's farm in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

following his father's death, and who goes missing as a result of foul play. It is an

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint vent ...

between Australia and Canada. The film was released in 2021 to mixed reviews from the critics.

Summary

Two New Yorkers, 14-year-old Ridley (Burch) and his mother Gloria (Hill) travel to Australia to spend time with Gloria's estranged father-in-law Spencer (Nighy) on his remote

Western Australian Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

"Buckley's Chance" (named after William Buckley; the expression '' "Buckley's chance"'' also denotes something hopeless in

Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...

), following the death of Gloria's firefighter husband in the United States. Conflict arises between Ridley and his grandfather during Spencer's attempts at connecting with his grandson who always carries a

camcorder A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-sw ...

, a gift from his late father. During a camping trip, Ridley storms off and comes across a wild

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

trapped in barbed wire fencing which he rescues. Meanwhile, Spencer is being intimidated by three locals, Cooper, Mick and Oscar (Sacks, Wood and Gooley, respectively) in an attempt to get Spencer to sell the station. Ridley stumbles on Mick and Oscar attempting to set fire to Spencer's hay shed and attempts to document this with his camera. Desperate to hide, Ridley jumps under the cover at the back of their

ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

but can't escape in time and ends up being transported to a location unknown to him. While escaping from Mick and Oscar, Ridley gets lost but is reunited with the dingo he rescued, who he befriends as he attempts to find his way back to "Buckley's Chance" in the harsh conditions of the

Australian outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass ...

. Upon discovering Ridley missing, Spencer and his station manager Jules (Pell) coordinate a search with the local emergency services.

Cast

* Milan Burch *

* Ben Wood *

Kelton Pell Kelton Pell is an Aboriginal Australian stage, TV, and film actor, best known for his role as the court liaison officer, Sam Wallan, in the SBS legal drama '' The Circuit''. Early life Kelton Pell is a Noongar man from Western Australia. C ...

* Anthony Gooley

Production

The film was directed by Tim Brown, who also co-wrote the script with Willem Wennekers. Although the movie is set in Western Australia, it was actually filmed near

Broken Hill, New South Wales Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

in 2019. ''Buckley's Chance'' was released to Australian cinemas on 24 June 2021, distributed by

Transmission Films Transmission Films is an Australian film production and distribution company based in Sydney and Auckland, New Zealand founded in 2008 by Richard Payten and Andrew Mackie. History Transmission Films was founded in 2008 by Richard Payten and A ...

Reception

''Buckley's Chance'' received mixed reviews, as did Nighy's

Australian accent Australian English (AuE) accents are the non-rhotic pronunciations of English used by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, Australian English is a relatively regionally homogeneous variety of the English language. Australian English i ...

, and the

New York accent The phonology, sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The accent (sociolinguistics), accent of the New York metropolitan area is one of the most recognizable in the United States, largely due to its p ...

s used by Hill and Burch.

References

External links

* 2021 films Australian drama films 2020s English-language films Screen Australia films Canadian drama films Films produced by Gilbert Adler 2020s Canadian films 2020s Australian films {{2020s-Australia-film-stub