Media: Cinematic Release.
The Cup was movie Number One of my seven movie marathon on 29/10/2011. I crazily enough dragged along to the movie marathon my brother-in-law, an avid film fan, rather much like myself.
The Cup is an biographic film covering the two months prior to the 2002 Melbourne Cup (which coincidentally enough will occur in a few days time). It details the trials and tribulations surrounding the life of Melbourne Cup winning jockey Damien Oliver, who won with the horse, Media Puzzle in 2002; but had also lost his brother, fellow jockey Jason Oliver due to a tragic racing accident some weeks prior to the Cup.
An emaciated looking Stephen Curry (of The Castle fame) captivates the screen with his portrayal of Damien Oliver, the jockey facing both tragedy and victory within the film. Brendan Gleeson plays Dermot Weld, the Irish racehorse trainer who entrusts his victory to Damien winning the cup with Media Puzzle. Gleeson plays his part well, though his voice kinda reminds me of the voice he used when he played Professor "Mad-Eye" Moody in the Harry Potter series, but that was just a momentary observation which doesn't spoil the storyline.
The movie plays slowly, but really kicks in about fifty minutes in... Coincidentally enough this seems to kick in around the time of Jason Oliver's death. As this was an event by which was felt by pretty much all Australians back then, it proved to be quite tear-jerking even in the cinema. Curry's sense of grief is felt by the audience as he shows his vulnerable side. I couldn't help but feel the sense of anguish that Curry felt.
I had heard that Stephen Curry had to lose about 12 kilos (about 27 pounds) to get his body in the right shape to play the part of Damien Oliver. This contrasts considerably to the last biopic he made, The King, where he played the younger and older versions of Graham Kennedy, and was required to lose 14 kilos (30 pounds) to play the role of the younger Kennedy, but then had to put it all back on within two weeks in order to play the older version of his character.
All in all, the film is a joy to watch and proved to be a great start to my movie marathon. It's well deserving of its 5 star rating I've given it.
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