Homey Charm Fortifies ‘The Castle’

A quartet of TV comedy writers spent two weeks writing “The Castle” and 11 days shooting it with one camera, and there’s a great temptation to quote my mother who, I believe, coined the phrase, “You only get out of a project as much as you put into it.”

And yet . . .

Despite half-baked nods to Monty Python, Rowan Atkinson, the lower-class half of “Keeping Up Appearances” and--in its oh-so-cutesy use of narration--Jay Ward’s “Fractured Fairy Tales,” “The Castle” has the ultra-slow pace, ultra-thick characters and ultra-slim plot of a PBS sitcom pilot. Hardly worth a night at the movies.

And yet . . .

If a man like Daryl Kerrigan of Cooloroo, Australia, is thankful to the point of tears that he has a pool room for his trophies, who are we to point out that his trophies are junk, his pool table tilts and his house is a hovel hard by the runway of Melbourne’s airport with a toxic waste-filled backyard and an unfinished addition that even duct tape couldn’t heal?

If a man like Daryl Kerrigan is happy with his lot in life, who are we to suggest that he take the money and run when the mega-conglomo-airport company condemns his house and tells him to move?

Yes, it’s a little guy versus big guy movie. You know the story. You know the outcome. You know you have to root for the little guy.

The Kerrigans, on the other hand, don’t know much. Mum’s a home-decorating maniac who can’t leave a surface unfrilled or unfringed, badly. Son Wayne is in jail for theft. Son Steve fills the house with items bought through the newspaper--overhead projector, anyone? Son Dale serves as the narrator and keeper of the family’s umbrella smile, though his narration is usually immediately repeated as dialogue. Daughter Tracey, a certified hairdresser who marries a kick-boxer, is the only Kerrigan who has actually made use of the airport.

As Daryl, Aussie sitcom vet Michael Caton presides over his Love Boat ship of fools with such genuineness, such certainty that his is a world without end, you have no option but to say amen. His cup overflows with praise for the smallest accomplishment, finding pleasure in meatloaf, pride in an overhead power line and giving encouragement to the hapless lawyer who defended his son into prison to take his case to the highest court on the continent.

Like a solemnly presented, “Home Sweet Home” sampler sewn for Father’s Day in second-grade art class, “The Castle” is charming and, yes, uplifting. A man’s house is a commodity easily bought and sold; his home is something to which no one else can set a price.

* MPAA rating: R, for language. Times guidelines: The cursing is pervasive, but casual and colloquial and will come in handy should you find yourself down under with a bone to pick.

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‘The Castle’

Michael Caton: Daryl Kerrigan

Anne Tenney: Sal Kerrigan

Stephen Curry: Dale Kerrigan

Anthony Simcoe: Steve Kerrigan

Sophie Lee: Tracey Kerrigan

Miramax Films in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and Working Dog. Directed by Rob Sitch. Written and conceived by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Rob Sitch. Executive producer, Michael Hirsh. Producer, Debra Choate. Editor, Wayne Hyett. Director of photography, Miriana Marusic. Art direction, Ben Morieson. Production designer, Carrie Kennedy. Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes.

At selected theaters.