A week is a long time in publishing.
In BOOK WEEK, Nicholas Cutler, curmudgeonly writer sentenced to teaching English to high school kids, finds that his latest manuscript has attracted interest from a publisher.
All he has to do is remain clean and sober for a week to convince the publishers that he can conduct himself on a book tour in a civil manner.
His reputation has preceded him, past indiscretions in public have blotted his copybook and the publishers want no controversy.
Too bad he’s just bedded a student teacher he’s supposed to be chaperoning, that he is fornicating with the head teacher in the photocopying room, and witheringly dismissive of a Year 12 student’s aspirations as a writer.
Cutler is a serial root rat and labouring under the literary tradition of liquor liver lashing, cutting a louche swathe through staff and students, but all he has to do is endure one more week, which happens to coincide with the school’s annual book week festivities.
Easier said than done when what starts off as an ordinary school week turns out to be anything but for the narcissistic and opportunistic hack as paternity looms, people from the past, including a reporter and a cop, want his balls and his sister wants his kidney to save the life of her husband.
Writer/Director Heath Davis wrote, directed and produced the Australian feature film BROKE starring Steve Le Marquand, Max Cullen, Claire van Der Boom and Brendan Cowell a few years back. It was a little gem.
Thematically linked to Broke, BOOK WEEK has a lighter take and tone on a washed up professional, more of a comedy than a tragedy.
Alan Dukes plays Cutler, who on the surface has all the attributes popularly associated with genius, an oversexed lush and commitment -phobe railing against crass commercialism and the eternal conflict with art.
Susan Prior plays Lee, the head teacher in the department who has been bonking him while mothering him. Prior and Pippa Grandison as Cutler’s sister, give BOOK WEEK dramatic gravitas and grace.
Comedic kudos to Tiriel Mora as The Principal of the school, who steals scenes left, right and centre, with a look, a stance or a gesture.
And there’s a late entry killer cameo from Steve Le Marquand.
For most of its running time, BOOK WEEK is an exploration of character, a man living a cliché rather than dealing with reality. The denouement concerning the redemption of the cynic through sperm and organ donation seems to jettison that early focus somewhat reducing the advancement of the plot to cliché, which is a pity.