The Bit Part

This light comedy was much liked by David Stratton and others in the 1980s, but now it comes across as a series of dull and unfunny incidents in the life of a man who appears to have no acting talent.

Perhaps Chris Haywood is not really cut out for comedy or perhaps the film is too full of acting in-jokes that only appeal to people in the industry, or perhaps humour has changed since the 1980s.

Even the presence of a youngish Nicole Kidman, only a couple of years away from Hollywood, does not manage to save this film, although Kidman does as good a job as anyone with the script. Like so many other Aussie films of the 80s, this film is not interesting enough to warrant 90 minutes of our time.

Of course, it does not help that the only copies now available are poorly recorded from television, but I don't think even a crystal-clear copy would help much. The film predictably failed to gain a commercial release in the 80s and went straight to television.