Director Nadia Tess takes a similar risk with artistic licence in this wonderful film when she has two small boys, in fancy dress, sneak out of the hospital’s cancer ward and make their way, by cab, to Melbourne’s Luna Park. It’s a big ask, but I took it on board unhesitatingly, so wrapped was I in the drama that was unfolding. Sick kids are hardly the most appealing subject matter, but writers Lynne Renew and David Parker have constructed a narrative that maintains forthright pace, suspense and a modest, slow blooming romance without at any time demeaning the plight of their central characters.

Eight year-old Jack (Tom Russell), in hospital after being diagnosed with aggressive leukemia, becomes mates with fellow sufferer Finn (Kodi Smit-McPhee), whose condition is more advanced. Jack’s mother Marissa (Jacinda Barrett) discovers on the day of his admission that her husband David (Richard Roxburgh) has been having an affair and is planning to leave her. With their marriage in meltdown and David’s numerous infidelities coming to light, Marissa seeks out his former mistresses in the last-straw hope that one of them may have borne him a child who might be a compatible bone marrow donor. Meanwhile Finn’s condition deteriorates, despite the defiant optimism of his widowed, Irish dad (James Nesbitt). Yes, it’s a soapie alright – but what a beauty.

The search for a donor – if one exists – is never predictable, but a reassuring orthodoxy in the flow of events promises reward for the emotional weight that is at one point (for me, anyway) overwhelming. Barrett, who first caught the eye in ‘Ladder 49’ (2004), is superb as the desperate young mum, Roxburgh is genuinely dislikeable as the utter bastard and, as Finn’s dad, James Nesbitt reins in a character that threatens at first to tilt in to goofiness. Both boys are naturals. Polished without ever trying to be flash and enhanced by a perfectly pitched Paul Grabowsky score, it has inevitably suffered from the black-shirts’ charge of sentimentality, but I loved it and found it immensely moving and honest in its humanity. You can catch it at Lismore.

As a necessity we desensitise ourselves from so much that when a film like Matching Jack arrives, it reminds us that we are still human and able to feel something.

In the case of this great Australian film it’s compassion to the enth degree.

Jacinda Barrett and Richard Roxburgh star as parents Marissa and David, whose son Jack is diagnosed with leukaemia.

The only way to save Jack is to find someone with a rare bone marrow match for him.

However, what follows is far from the typical “parents search for a cure” plot.

It turns out David has been sleeping with many women behind Marissa’s back for years.

In fact, he was actually planning on leaving his wife for Veronica (Yvonne Strahovski) when he learns of Jack’s illness.

A distraught Marissa discovers a diary kept by David that lists all his indiscretions, so she uses it to track down all his past flings in the hope he fathered a child that would be a genetic match for Jack.

It’s an interesting twist that helps the viewer connect with Marissa’s struggle even more.

While confronting the women David has betrayed her with could be disastrous for her own psyche, she does so for the love of her son.

Where this movie truly shines is in the relationship Jack (Tom Russell) develops in hospital with another boy suffering from leukaemia, Finn (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

Finn’s illness is far more progressed but his father Connor (James Nesbitt) hasn’t given up hope that his son will be cured.

His quirky ways of bringing cheer to his son and strength to Marissa are inspiring.

Director Nadia Tass handles the material well, avoiding cliches and cheap emotional ploys to make us feel for her characters.

If you don’t feel moved watching this then I’m sorry, there’s something wrong with you.

Matching Jack allows us insight into a world that unfortunately is a reality for so many families. You may cry, you may not – but it will definitely stir your emotions.

- Penrith Press

Link: www.penrith-press.whereilive.com.au

Set in Melbourne, Australia and based on real event, the film starts in a familiar frantic rush. Two parents juggling family and work: the father David (played by Richard Roxburgh) attending the first half of his son’s birthday party, while mother Marissa (Jacinda Barrett) talks on her mobile while lighting the candles on the cake.

But the pace of Lynne Renew and David Parker’s screenplay slows down when little Jack (Tom Russell) gets quickly tired during a school football match and blood tests show he has a high white cell count that warrants being admitted to hospital. Not a good moment for a philandering father to be ignoring his mobile and not checked into the hotel he told his wife.

As Jack’s health fails, Marissa and David’s marriage unravels in the hospital. Enter manic, new age, hyper positive thinking widower Connor (James Nesbitt), father of Finn (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who’s in the same two bed Leukaemia ward.

“When the spirit dies, so will the flesh. That won’t be happening to my son Finn.”

He’s the kind of crazy father who pretends to live in a mythical world in which his son is sailing towards a land in which he’ll be reunited with his mother, and builds the shell of a wooden boat around his son’s hospital bed and sails it around the corridors. No gesture is too big for him. As Jack summed it up from across the ward:

“Is his Daddy sick too?”

Yet when faced with bad news, his optimism at times turns to a very human private despair out of sight of his son.

Parents will do anything to “fix” a sick child. The film explores the desperate lengths to which Jack’s parents will go to find a bone marrow match. Could any of David’s affairs have resulted in offspring that would offer Jack hope.

While death is always on the horizon, the film manages to balance tragedy with levity. The escape sequence is magical and one of many great memorable visual images contained in the film. A single black swan swims significantly across the harbour. Some later scenes are filmed at great distance, giving the characters privacy at moments of pain.

It’s an emotional film. Bring tissues. Bring extras for the people sitting around you. Yet amidst the morbidity and bitterness there is hope, love, sacrifice, reluctant cooperation and enthusiastic generosity. And a timely reminder that children are worth fighting for and loving in good times as well as bad.

With an initial release in Australia, Matching Jack is touring film festivals and in the running for a number of awards. Hopefully it will go on general release and deserves to be seen by wider audiences.

After the screening, I spoke to director Nadia Tass who talked about the film and its prospects. And if you like the film, I’m sure she’d appreciate your support over on the film’s Facebook page.

Link: alaninbelfast.blogspot.com

Sounds like a Lifetime channel movie of the week. In the hands of a lesser director and cast, it could be. In the hand of Australian director Nadia Tass, this Melbourne melodrama resists clichés and conventions.

Part of CIFF’s “Global Health”sidebar, “Matching Jack” follows the cataclysmic leukemia diagnose of a young boy. His mother Marissa, the lovely Jacinda Barrett soon afterwards learns her husband David (Richard Roxburgh) was with his mistress when Jack was diagnosed. It’s the latest of many affairs, but instead of imploding, Marissa embarks on an awkward mission – to see if David has an illegitimate child who might be a bone marrow match for Jack. Along the way, she bonds with the father of the Jack’s hospital roommate, Connor (the wonderful Irish actor James Nesbit), who counters his son’s dire situation with whimsical tales of boats and magical journeys. As fine as these adults are in their roles, its young Kodi Smit-McFee (from “The Road”), as Connor’s son, Finn, who steals the show as a boy who approaches his prognosis with a gentle weariness beyond his years.

In addition to the expected rage and tears, Tass’ nuanced film deals with less common issues in such movies: how do the parents of a child doing better relate to those of a child getting worse? How do parents tell a child he’s dying? How does a child tell a parent he knows? Is it ethical to have a baby to help your living child? And how do you deal with your own romantic relationships while your child is sick?

There are no easy answer to any of these questions, and this is not an easy film. It’s a smart tearjerker that elicits laughs and sobs. That’s quite a feat for a film where much of the action is set on a children’s cancer ward.

- The Plain Dealer

Link: www.cleveland.com

link: MIFF AWARDS