''Traps'' is a 1994 Australian film directed by Pauline Chan and starring

Saskia Reeves Saskia Reeves (born 16 August 1961) is a British actress, known for her roles in films including '' Close My Eyes'' (1991) , ''I.D.'' (1995), and '' Our Kind of Traitor'' (2016), in the 2000 miniseries '' Frank Herbert's Dune'', and in TV seri ...

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 ...

, and

Sami Frey Sami Frey (born Sami Frei; 13 October 1937) is a French actor of Algerian and Italian descent. Among the films he starred in are '' En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud'' (1993), in which he portrays French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud, and '' Ba ...

. It is not to be confused with the other Australian film named '' Traps'' (1985).

Premise

Set in Vietnam during the 1950s, journalist Michael Duffield (Robert Reynolds) and his English photographer wife Louisa (

) arrive at the plantation of a Frenchman named Daniel (

) and his daughter Sarah (

Cast

as Louise Duffield * Robert Reynolds as Michael Duffield *

as Viola *

as Daniel * Kiet Lam as Tuan * Hoa To as Tatie Chi

Reception

On SBS's

The Movie Show ''The Movie Show'' was an Australian film review program which was broadcast on SBS TV. Its history is divided into three parts, until it finally wound up in 2008. History The programme commenced on 30 October 1986 with David Stratton and Mar ...

Margaret Pomeranz Margaret Pomeranz (born Margeret Anne Jones-Owen, 15 July 1944) is an Australian film critic, writer, producer, and television personality. Early life Pomeranz was born Margeret Anne Jones-Owen on 15 July 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney ...

and

David Stratton David James Stratton (born 1939) is an English-Australian film critic and historian. He has also worked as a journalist, interviewer, educator, television personality, and producer. His career as a film critic, writer, and educator in Austral ...

both gave i 3 1/2 stars. Pomeranz said "the film creates a mood and an era that is complex and powerful, so that I was seduced by this story of a woman trying to come to terms with her own need for independence." Later reviewing for Variety, Stratton wrote "Chan pulls the various strands of the film together with skill; “Traps” is a very well-made film, though it lacks the dazzling style of the director’s shorts." Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald Paul Byrnes gave it a mixed review writing "The film has competing impulses and ambitions, rather than a feel of unity. Chan does not balance the interior life of the characters with the exterior drama. The interior has all the tension; the fight between colonials and nationalists has very little, making it seem an exotic backdrop." Neil Jillett from the Age was also mixed, finishing "Despite the film’s clumsiness in political and professional matters, Chan does draw with considerable subtlety a parallel between the Michael-Louise situation and the way the French and the Vietnamese - the imperialists and the colonised - view each other. So ‘Traps’, at its best, is a film that works, with considerable naturalistic and metaphorical power, on two levels." In Cinema Papers Scott Murray gave it a mixed review, finishing "Traps is not an overly successful film, but, as first films in Australia go, it is a good start. If Chan has tackled more than she can handle, this is surely preferable to the many minor-key efforts passing as striking débuts these days." The Sun-Herald's Rob Lowin gave it two stars noting "Traps doesn’t succeed - there are too many holes in plot and spaces in characterisation to weave the required tapestry. But as a calling card, it's memorable." The Sunday Age's Tom Ryan also gave it two stars calling it a "Thoughtful Australian drama set in Vietnam and dealing with displaced people and their struggle for liberation." In ''Australian Film, 1978-1994'', Jan Epstein concludes "Although the last quarter of the film fails to maintain psychological tension and devolves into conventionality, the female line is consistently well-handled, and the lush photography and authentic settings make Traps worth seeing." Internationally Traps had mixed to negative reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times writes "It's not the actors' fault that their characters don't make psychological sense. Their shrill erotic charades are metaphoric shortcuts in a film that can't be bothered to develop credible characters or tell a complex story." In the LA Times Kevin Thomas called it "awkward, painfully sincere" finishing ""Traps" is such a passionately committed film that it generates considerable raw emotion, and there's a great deal of honesty in the way Chan's four principals fumble around, sensing a need to connect with themselves and each other. But in delving into messy lives, entangled in politics and emotions, Chan has been unable to keep her film from seeming something of a mess itself." San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Stack states "Though the film is weakened by an ending that seems to trail off, "Traps" is tantalizing." San Francisco Examiner's Barbara Shulgasser finishes "Chan loses her way as the film ends. She decides to wrap up the proceedings by targeting a convenient villain. But she doesn't prepare us for this sudden and surprising evil. When a country erupts into gory retribution and murder, villains and heros become difficult to tell apart anyway."

Awards

* 1994 Australian Film Institute Awards ** Best Original Music Score - Stephen Rae - won ** Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Kiet Lam - nominated ** Best Actress in a Supporting Role -Jacqueline McKenzie - nominated ** Best Adapted Screenplay - Robert Carter, Pauline Chan (from ''Dreamhouse'' (novel) by

Kate Grenville Catherine Elizabeth Grenville (born 1950) is an Australian author. She has published fifteen books, including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process. In 2001, she won the Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange Prize for ...

) - nominated ** Best Production Design - Michael Philips - nominated

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0111478
''Traps''
at Oz Movies 1994 films 1994 thriller films Australian thriller films Films based on Australian novels 1990s English-language films 1990s Australian films English-language thriller films