Keane on Life

Oingo Boingo - Stay

Caught Aussie romcom Any Questions For Ben? at the multiplex today, and it’s a film I have decidedly mixed feelings about. While it was entertaining (and wonderfully lensed - the city of Melbourne never looked better on celluoid), the thrust of the film being that the eponymous character has a ‘quarter-life crisis’ I found deeply problematic. (It played as something of a wish-fulfilment exercise on the part of the writers, in that Ben goes from one relationship to another - each with a terribly beautiful woman - before finding twoo luv with a former uni classmate.)

The soundtrack, too, was a grab-bag, veering from late-90’s Triple M FM radio rawk to latter-day Triple J ‘down with the kids’ jams, with a couple of oldies (i.e. Boston’s evergreen ‘More Than A Feeling’) to keep likewise older audiences in the loop.

So when this song was deployed at an appropiate juncture - “This is not a sitcom, where everything’s alright…”  - it was the only time I felt engaged with the film beyond marvelling at the plot contrivances (of which there were many), or chuckling at the odd subtle gag. I liked the film, middlebrow as it was (and I will get the DVD at some point, I dug the cinematography that much), I just wish it had a touch more verisimilitude to it.

‘Cos the truth is, for a film set in a city I love and wish I visited more often, Any Questions For Ben? felt at times as far removed from real life as any sci-fi timewaster you could name.