In the new Australian drama West, Pete (Clubland's Khan Chittenden) spends his time hanging out on the mean streets of outer suburban Sydney, shooting pool at the pub and smoking pot with his cousin and best mate, Jerry (Nathan Phillips). They're both interested in Cheryl (Gillian Alexy) but Pete knows Jerry'll get there first.

While his cousin starts showing signs of wanting to settle down (starting with a job at a fried chicken shop), Pete's life seems to spiral slowly out of control. Flirting with Cheryl behind Jerry's back, drinking, dealing drugs and getting caught up in increasingly violent altercations with local thugs, Pete seems to lose sight of what really matters. Meanwhile his chances of "getting out" are on the wane...

The wrong-side-of-the-tracks film is an indie staple stateside. This Australian variant doesn't succeed in updating the well-worn genre and seems happy to simply recycle the classic coming-of-age elements of more successful productions.

There was an opportunity here to tell a uniquely Australian story, but while the film certainly has a good sense of place, it aims only to give its cliché-ridden tale a local flavour. It's as if the filmmakers' objective had been to make West "as good as" the American indies who inspired it, rather than to tell a personal, original story.

Even the sleek, gorgeous cinematography cries of attention-seeking professionalism when a dirty, gritty look might've lent the film the air of authenticity it sorely lacks. While West is Daniel Krige's feature film debut, he is an experienced writer and director with several shorts and TV episodes behind him. Here his direction is confident and efficient, it's the screenwriting which falters somewhat.

Daniel Krige wrote the first draft of West more than twenty years ago when he was sixteen, and it shows. Instead of trusting the drama inherent in Pete's journey, the film lays it on too thick. The thin social commentary seems only a pretext for romanticised scenes of harsh street justice. The violence is gruesome and cinematic, a devalued narrative currency which ups the ante artificially, until the characters' motivations becomes unrecognisable or plain hard to believe.

We need to like Pete, or at least care enough to accompany him through these rites of passage. However his violent behaviour, like the viciousness he allows around him, doesn't feel like something he's inherited, growing up in the wrong place. It comes across as something written into his character with the misplaced hope of raising the dramatic stakes.

It's a shame really, as clearly a lot of effort went into this, and from very talented people. The actors, especially, do a fine job with the material they've been given. Rising star Khan Chittenden does a particularly fine job considering the impossible task of portraying a character who behaves like a violent, careless idiot while retaining the audience's sympathy.

Caught between its desire to entertain us and its attempt at gritty authenticity, West fails to convince us that Pete, Jerry or Cheryl don't eventually deserve what they've obviously got coming to them...

- Review by Matt Ravier