Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The plot in brief: young Cody, played by Henry Thomas of E.T. fame, is a brilliant and inventive youngster living with a family friend in Australia after he is orphaned. After he discovers the body of a man who appears to have died of utter terror at an old, abandoned, flooded quarry, he begins to investigate rumours the waters hide a Loch Ness-like monster the locals call the Donkigen. With the help of his friends and a mysterious Aborigine named Charlie Pride, he ends up solving the mystery -- albeit at the risk of his own life.
By American standards, this film is very slowly paced and very innocent, which will no doubt lead to many bad reviews in this venue. If one is willing simply to sit back and let the film happen, as one must with many non-American films, one gains more appreciation for it. The opening sequence is a text-book example on how to create tension, at least, as is the underwater sequence when Cody goes exploring, and the whole is nicely filmed. What I especially liked is the balance between the rational and the magic; Quest constantly appears to be on the edge of the supernatural, only to pull back to a realistic point of view -- and yet you never quite lose the feeling that the magic is there, *almost* visible out of the corner of your eye.
Although I have grown fond of this film, I must say in all honesty it is not a great one. Still, it is amiable; the tension, although it never quite sets your heart to racing, is nonetheless very real; and for those with patience, the film does have its rewards. A child spoiled by dazzling special effects and jaded by too many graphic horror movies would probably be very bored by it; but there will be children, and adults as well, who would enjoy it.
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