Where's the Mystery Machine when you need it?

Film: The Cars That Ate Paris
Rating: 4 out of 5

The Cars That Ate Paris, the first film from Australian director Peter Weir, starts off with a sequence of a couple driving around. Just driving, mostly; smoking and laughing and looking around. The way the scene is presented is so '70s it blows my mind. Then suddenly, their car veers off the road, crashing and killing them both. So it goes in the (fictional) small country town of Paris, Australia. Graffitied cars patrol the streets like sharks, driven by daredevils that crash them for fun. When the residents see an outsider on their way in, they set up a trap that sends the car flying off the winding downhill road. The driver is killed, and the Parisians get to keep whatever they find in the wreckage and sell the rest.

A special exception is made in the case of Arthur Waldo (Terry Camilleri), who survived when his brother George, the driver, did not. Arthur is deemed harmless by the citizens and taken under the wing of the mayor (John Meillon). Arthur, unaware of their homicidal economic policies, gets caught up in the town's politics. He soon finds that getting out of Paris isn't as easy as just walking away.

The only thing really "wrong" with this movie is the inconsistent and oddly experimental score. At times it is appropriately pensive or intimidating, but at other times it is preposterously contradictory to what one would expect. Sometimes it seems to actively attempt to be as stylistically diverse as possible without actually contributing to the mood. Beyond that, the film shows that Peter Weir has always had strong artistic vision. It is not unlike his later releases in terms of camera angles and editing, not to mention characters and performances intriguingly dissimilar to others in the same genre. Terry Camilleri plays Arthur as a meek, bereaved man haunted by his own driving past. Maybe it's not the greatest acting, but it keeps us on his side during the sadistic psychological exams he is put through. You may have seen him as Napoleon in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

The screenplay is, in fact, one of the better ones written by Weir himself. It does have its cult appeal, namely the menacing cars that ride the line between mystery and just plain exploitation, but it has its more serious aspirations too. Weir creates (in a "film student" sort of way) a smart, suspenseful thriller as complex as it is bizarre. He gives his characters unique backgrounds and strong opinions and relatively clever things to say. John Meillon is especially powerful as the stalwart mayor, a frustrated but intelligent man struggling to hold his small kingdom together. The Cars That Ate Paris isn't and won't be counted among Weir's best films, but it is certainly not one of his worst.