Ever dreamt of playing for your country (Save Your Legs: Part 1)

Thanks to Madman

My childhood was doused in cricket. It began as a three year old in a New Zealand backyard, being given ‘out’ by English international cricket umpire Dickie Bird. Years later, having moved to Australia, it continued with a memorable BBQ in our new backyard, where Australian fast bowler Graham McKenzie patted me on the head. I can still feel the enormity of his hand, his thumb resting down the side of my face. The beginning of Save Your Legs bought back all these memories and many more. Basically, it had me at the first ball.

Save Your Legs explores what happens when a group of Aussie men enter their mid-thirties, the time when growing responsibilities battle against maintaining treasured bachelor past times. There’s a fantastic line from the movie I could quote here but I’m not into spoilers. The movie’s been perfectly described as an ‘odyssey from the suburbs to the sub-continent in pursuit of a boyhood dream.’

Thanks to Madman

Edward Brown, Teddy (Stephen Curry) lives for his cricket, but his beloved Abbotsford Anglers are at risk of disintegrating into a world of nappies and school pickups. In an attempt to keep the team together, he convinces his boss Sanjeet, to let the Anglers represent Australia on a tour of India. Pulling this off meant implying that they were an A Grade team, when infact their skills left them far lower down the alphabet.

Teds two team mates and best friends (played by Damon Gameau and Brendon Cowell) have already moved on, and see the tour as an attempt to relive the single life. What follows is an inspirational comedic adventure involving goats, cricket boxes, hallucinogenic substances, and a Bollywood superstar.

Written by Brendan Cowell, apart from being a great comedy the movie also has you pondering about mateship, and whether that has to change if it has any hope of expanding into old age.

Before the movie began Damon Gameau said ‘Don’t take the film too seriously, it’s the best way to watch it’. He needn’t have  bothered as the audience was laughing within the first few seconds, as soon as the familiar music started playing. Save Your Legs is a refreshing change in the current environment of tougher films like Zero Dark Thirty and The Impossible.

For cricket fans watch out for the legendary Sir Richard Hadlee, who just happened to be in town and lent a hand.

The evening left me pondering: 

1. The benefits of a childhood surrounded by cricket, even if at times the constant drone on the TV could get a tad tiresome.
2. I’ll never be able to listen to the song I don’t like cricket, in the same way.
3. How you never know what can happen if you just pluck up some courage and have a go. Case in point … asking Damon Gameau for a photo at the Q & A session (see the next post).
4. If you’re in a cricket club why not make it a fundraiser. On this night the Roleystone Park Cricket Club arrived in their uniforms and quickly set about assigning members to the various characters on screen.