Tom White

• Tom White is a powerful and original film that draws its audience into an almost surreal homeless existence, originating from one of comfortable middle class. The film's strange beauty and stellar performances make this one of the superior offerings from the Australian film industry in recent times.

• Director Alkinos Tsilimidos draws honest performances with little sentimentality from all of his cast. Centre-stage, Colin Friels’s performance is terrific: the sort often referred to as “brave”, perhaps because he is so physically immersed in the role. From his initial “Mr Average” wage earner/husband/Dad persona, he unravels to a condition of filthy dishevelment, but, underscored by a reawakened spirit, apparently enriched to have finally broken the shackles of mediocrity

• Which brings us now to Tom White, his most accomplished, confident and compassionate film to date. After a lengthy absence from our big screens – at least in a role that befits his talent – Colin Friels sheds all traces of actor’s vanity and ego to ‘become’ the titular character. He acts his heart out as Tom, a man who slips between the cracks. Things aren’t right for Tom; his reality and his perception start to terrify him and the walls close in. One day he goes AWOL from his life.

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