Sydney ’16: Coconut Hero review: A fresh and conventional coming-of-age love letter
A witty and whimsical film that will win you over and leave you smiling. Coconut Hero review direct from this year’s Sydney Film Festival.
In a day and age where young-adult tearjerkers about youth and life are in abundance (from Perks of Being a Wallflower to The Fault in Our Stars), on paper, Coconut Hero doesn’t stand out from the crowd and sounds like much of the same. However, it is anything but. This is a fresh and conventional – if certainly flawed attempt at telling a story about a troubled youngster finding himself, as well as also being a love letter to the coming-of-age genre it falls into too.
The film opens with our lead character, Mike Tyson (not the boxer) played by newcomer Alex Ozerov, pointing a gun to his head before pulling the trigger. Right from the get go, we know this kid isn’t too fond of his life and is in need of a John Green-esque journey to find himself. Sure enough, Mike’s suicidal attempt fails. Forced to go to school by his mum Cynthia (Krista Bridges) with a bandage round his head, the day his pre-planned obituary prints in the local paper, humiliation ensues for Tyson. However, to top things off, he is soon diagnosed with a brain tumour and we’re only 15 minutes into the film with so much having gone done already. Deciding to keep this news to himself and let the tumour take his life when it does, the troubled Mike is soon admitted to therapy where he meets the blonde, charismatic social worker Miranda (Bea Santos). When the pair form a tender relationship and go off on a roadtrip of clarity, Mike soon realises that maybe life isn’t all that bad after all.
It’s fairly refreshing to see such a film, dealing with such topics, so light and surprisingly upbeat. Coconut Hero is witty and whimsical and actually quite funny at times. The score is energetic and you can’t help but be affected by the contagious joyful tone of the film. It’s a fun film and German director Florian Cossen understands the material, packing a lot of heart and quirkiness into the proceedings. At the same time, it’s not all just sugar and cream and the film does get provocative and emotional when required, tugging at the heartstrings and getting sombre when it needs to. Elena Von Saucken‘s screenplay can get fairly absurd and over-the-top at times yet it remains very real and grounded because of its heart and its characters and Cossen‘s direction of the material.
What really drives this film are the well written and well realised characters. You can’t help but empathise for Tyson. His struggles are perhaps a little tame in comparison to those who actually suffer from depression but you can’t help but feel for him when he’s getting picked on at school or root for for him as he’s trying to bond with his German father Frank (Sebastian Schipper) – who left Mike and Cynthia years ago. The characters all feel real and grounded and it adds levity to the proceedings. Similarly, his first encounter with pretty-girl Miranda is awkward and their relationship, for the most part, similarly with all relationships in this film, feel genuine and authentic. All the performances are great too, complimenting these intriguing characters very nicely too.
For such a fresh, funny and organic coming-of-age indie, it’s a shame when Cossen falls back on the played-out tropes of the genre. Mike and Miranda’s relationship gets to the point of being all-too idealistic and contrived and it deflates the whole purpose and poignancy of the authenticity behind it. Also, the road trip that the pair take is simply for the sake of the two characters taking a road trip together to find clarity and find themselves. It feels all too contrived and superficial, also leading to the aforementioned idealistic, contrived nature of their relationship.
Coconut Hero is fresh, fun and atypical, for the most part. With only a short 97 minute runtime, it does begin to drag a little in the middle act but Cossen is quick to act on this and picks up the pacing again as we approach the third act. Sure, falling back on genre clichés is to the film’s detriment too, but it can’t take away from just how great this film is.
Coconut Hero is a witty, wonderful – albeit flawed – little dramedy. It’s one of those films that will win you over and leave you smiling, a crowd-pleaser for teens and adults alike.
