''Mr. Reliable'' (also known as ''My Entire Life'') is a 1996 film directed by

Nadia Tass Nadia Tass (born Tassopoulou or Tassopoulos; ), is an Australian theatre and film director and film producer. She mostly makes films with her writer-producer husband David Parker, through their production company Cascade Films. Tass is known ...

based on the true story of the Wally Mellish siege, starring

Colin Friels Colin Friels (born 25 September 1952) is an Australian actor of theatre, TV, film and presenter. Early life Friels was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland.Interview with Colin Friels, ''George Negus Tonight'' (ABC Television), 26 August 200 ...

and

Jacqueline McKenzie Jacqueline Susan McKenzie (born 24 October 1967) is an Australian film and stage actress. Early life Born in Sydney, New South Wales, McKenzie attended Wenona School in North Sydney, New South Wales, North Sydney until 1983 then moved to Pymb ...

. It is the second film to be inspired by Mellish's story, after 1993's ''

Shotgun Wedding A shotgun wedding is a wedding arranged in response to pregnancy resulting from premarital sex. The phrase comes from the figurative imagining that the relatives of the pregnant bride threaten the reluctant male groom with a shotgun in order to ...

''.

Plot

In 1968, Wally Mellish has just been released from

Long Bay Jail The Long Bay Correctional Complex, commonly called Long Bay, is a correctional facility comprising a heritage-listed maximum and minimum security prison for males and females and a hospital to treat prisoners, psychiatric cases and remandees, loc ...

, moving into a new house in the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

suburb of Glenfield with his girlfriend, Beryl, and her baby. Police arrive at their door to question Mellish about some car thefts in the area, to which he responds by firing off a warning shot with his shotgun. A misunderstanding leads the police to believe that Beryl and the child are being held hostage. The matter quickly escalates to the Police Commissioner and the New South Wales Premier, then becomes a

media circus Media circus is a colloquial metaphor or idiom describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to b ...

. All are expecting an "American-style"

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

situation, and the

NSW Police The New South Wales Police Force is a law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia, established in 1862. With more than 17,000 police officers, it is the largest police organisation in Australia, policing an area of 801,60 ...

are keen to publicly display their patience with Mellish having recently been accused of

excessive force Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...

while handling

protests against the Vietnam War Protests against the Vietnam War took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The protests were part of a movement in opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The majority of the protests were in the United States, but some took place aro ...

. Negotiations follow over the next eight days. He demands to be allowed to marry Beryl, and a prison chaplain is sent in alongside police to officiate a small ceremony inside the house. Meanwhile, a growing number of people gather outside Mellish's house in support as he becomes a

folk hero A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythology, mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in Folk music, folk songs, folk tales ...

in Australian culture. Eventually, the police offer him in a deal in which he will come out and surrender himself with no charges laid, on condition that he publicly announces he will go and fight in Vietnam "to make up for the trouble (he's) caused." When it comes time to sign the enlistment papers, Mellish tells officials that he is illiterate. This lack of education disqualifies him from military service, and since the police agreed that charges would not be laid, he returns to his house in Glenfield to continue with his life.

Cast

as Wally Mellish *

as Beryl Muddle * Ken Radley as Mr. Morgan *

Amanda Muggleton Amanda Lillian Muggleton (born 12 October 1951) is an English Australian theatre, television and film actress. She is best known for her supporting television role in soap opera ''Prisoner'' as Chrissie Latham, with appearances between 1979 an ...

as Mrs. Morgan * Graham Rouse as Fred *

Jonathan Hardy Jonathan Hardy (20 September 1940 – 30 July 2012) was a New Zealand-Australian film and television actor, writer and director. Early career Hardy was born in Wellington and began his training at the New Zealand Players' Drama School. He tr ...

as Reverend McIntyre * Elaine Cusick as Mrs. McIntyre *

Frank Gallacher Frank Gallacher (7 April 1943 – 23 February 2009) was a Scottish-Australian actor. Early life Gallacher was born in Glasgow in 1943. In 1962, aged 19, he was working in London when his parents and younger sister decided to emigrate to Austra ...

as Don Ferguson * Paul Sonkkila as Norm Allan *

Susie Porter Susie Porter (born 1970 or 1971) is an Australian television, film and theatre actress. She made her debut in the 1996 film '' Idiot Box'', before rising to prominence in films including '' Paradise Road'' (1997), '' Welcome to Woop Woop'' (1997 ...

as Fay *

Gerry Skilton Gerry Skilton (born 12 March 1945) is an Australian actor, best known for playing the character Nugget in all three of the Crocodile Dundee series of films: ''Crocodile Dundee'', ''Crocodile Dundee II'', and ''Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles''. W ...

as Reggie Muddle * Lisa Hensley as Penny Wilbeforce *

Barry Otto Barry Otto (born 1941) is an Australian actor. Early life Barry Otto was born in 1941 in Brisbane, the son of a butcher. He has a sister named Denise. Otto trained as an artist at Brisbane Central Technical College. In the 1960s, Otto worked a ...

as The Premier * Geoff Morrell as Sergeant Campbell *

Sam Atwell Samuel Atwell (born 6 April 1979) is an Australian actor, producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as Kane Phillips in ''Home and Away'', and is also known for roles in ''headLand'', as Craig Palmer, and '' Secret Life of ...

as Samuel Jakovitch *

Aaron Blabey Aaron Blabey (born 1 January 1974) is an Australian author of children's books, and a former actor. He is the creator of three best-selling children's series; ''Pig the Pug'' – a picture book series about a rude, selfish, mean-spirited littl ...

as Bruce Morrison *

John Batchelor John Calvin Batchelor (born April 29, 1948) is an American author and the host of ''Eye on the World'' on the CBS Audio Network. His flagship station is WOR in New York City. The show is a hard-news-analysis radio program on current events, wo ...

as Chubby Cop

Production

Terry Hayes Terry Hayes (born 8 October 1951) is an Australian screenwriter, film producer and author. He is best known for his work with Kennedy Miller production house, with whom he won the AACTA Award for Best Film twice, for '' The Year My Voice Brok ...

was attached to produce the film. He showed a script to

, who liked the story and the characters but wanted it rewritten. Hayes made the changes and Tass came on board to direct. Also released as ''My Entire Life''.

Differences with reality

In real life, Beryl sought to have the marriage annulled the day after the siege ended, declaring that Mellish had abused her and she had only agreed to it under duress. Some accounts also have it that Mellish actually did threaten to kill her and the child. Mellish denied these claims, later telling the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'' "I swear on my kids' dying oath that the wedding was 100 per cent fact. I never did anything to her. She told the reporters that I chained her up and that. I never did. That part does hurt me. I'm against all that." Mellish was also not returned to his home in Glenfield but in fact sent to Morisset Hospital as a psychiatric patient. Upon release, NSW Police told him to leave the state - which he did, moving to Queensland, remarrying and living the rest of his life out under the alias "John Mellish."

Release

The film opened in the UK on 22 November 1996. It opened in Australia on 30 January 1997 on 64 screens and grossed $139,939 in its opening week, placing 14th at the Australian box office. It went on to gross $266,329 in Australia.

Reception

The independent critic

Adrian Martin Adrian Martin (born 1959) is an Australian film and arts critic. He now lives in Malgrat de Mar in Spain. He is Adjunct Associate Professor in Film Culture and Theory at Monash University. His work has appeared in many magazines, journals and ...

said of the film: "with its cute animal jokes, lovable ordinary folks and little-battler pathos, ''Mr Reliable'' is the kind of film today labelled Capraesque – except that Frank Capra never made a film as mushy or flabby as this."

References

External links

*
''Mr Reliable''
at Oz Movies 1996 films Australian comedy films Films directed by Nadia Tass Films set in 1968 Films set in Australia 1990s English-language films 1990s Australian films {{1990s-Australia-film-stub