Mystery of a Cab Handsome

It's Australian, so you know it's going to... meh, stick your own completion here. This is a telemovie based on a book, and... well... it has problems.

So, this dude, like, gets killed in a cab (this is set in Melbourne in 1886), and it's totally bogus. The obvious dude is obvious, but, of course, you know he totally didn't do it. It's all about the wealthy class doing things and getting away with it because they are wealthy, and there's this lower class woman who is completely the one we are supposed to root for to get somewhere, and everything hinges on her, and finally the mystery is revealed all over the place...

And if it seems like that recap is rushed, it's because the story is rushed. It's supposed to be this big depiction of the social class divide, but there is one token representation of the bottom class (a doss house, I think) and the upper class people have their house and dresses... and that's about it. A lot of the other class cliches are brushed over quickly, and the plot stampedes on, regardless of how believable some elements are. (The audience is left to assume a lot of what happens between scenes.) While this might be considered good in some ways, such as not wasting time, but since it already sweeping on to the next scene, even when the people are explaining things, there are a unsaid explanations people have to work out.

Actors... decent performances. No-one I recognised, but they might be popular Australian actors. Decent costumes too, but I'm not sure why the picture was in period colour, in that everything was basically in sepia tones (perhaps the picture I had was just badly coloured?). Made everything very drab.

I haven't read the book (never even heard of it before this), but can only imagine it comes across better than this adaptation does.

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