Mullet (ATOM Study Guide)

This study guide analyses the Australian feature film Mullet (David Ceasar, 2001). The guide looks at how the script is able to tell the story very honestly. There is no privileging of information; no tricks used. We understand the consequences of character choices at the exact moment as the characters themselves. In fact, we often know much more than the characters understand about themselves. Thus we see the central protagonist on a journey with all the immediacy and freshness that a lack of formulaic answers lends a story. The protagonist's discoveries or blindness (and those of the characters whom he contacts) become very obvious to us.

Because Mullet is a character-driven film, it's important to look at the plot. Characterisation rests on relationships within the film. Plot allows us to see the nature and pull of those relationships. The local barmaid, Kay (Belinda McClory) tells the story. Her voice-over narration in the second scene prepares us for what we are about to see. 'Country town stories ...are about getting married and having kids or they're about petty scandals and people leaving...This one's about someone coming back.'
That someone is Eddie Maloney (Ben Mendelsohn) who returns to Coollawarra, NSW, after three unspectacular years in Sydney. He hitches a ride into his hometown in the back of the ute of a 'roo shooter. The lyrics he sings tell us what's on his mind: 'I'm sifting though/ all these memories of you/ all these versions of you'.
The script's strength is in portraying the effects Eddie's presence on everyone else in the small country town. The story centres round the town's hostile reaction to Eddie's return and the consequences of his endeavours to renew his relationship with ex-girlfriend Tully (Susie Porter), who is now married to Eddie's brother Pete (Andrew S Gilbert). She must choose between the two men.