Rams: Aussie Remake of Brilliant Icelandic Sheep Drama Herds Its Own Distinct Flock
By Linda Barnard
Rating B+
Sam Neill’s Colin Grimurson knows a gorgeous sheep when he sees one. His flock is full of them. “You are beauties,” he gently tells them as he stares into their blank faces.
His brother Les (Australian actor Michael Caton) feels the same devotion to his herd. They don’t talk to each other about it. They don’t talk about anything. They may live next door but the brothers haven’t spoken a word to each other in 40 years.
Watch Original-Cin’s interview with Rams star Michael Caton
The story basics are the same in Rams, the 2020 Australian remake of Icelandic director Grímur Hákonarson’s 2015 award-winning Hrútar.
Director Jeremy Sims (Last Cab to Darwin) and screenwriter Jules Duncan dial down the bleak notes of the Icelandic original and inject the film with some Oz jocularity for their version.
They stay authentic to the spirit of the Icelandic film but admirers of the original will miss the stark, dark drama and flashes of quirky humour in Hakonarson’s style, where more is shown than told.
First among the flock for Colin and Les is the prize stud ram each of them has raised to magnificence. The sturdy legged chaps have handsome face-framing horns and prodigious, swinging male sacks that are an object of admiration among the sheep famers in a small Western Australia community. That the brothers typically compete against each other for top sheep honours deepens their rift.
Colin seems less invested in the unexplained bad blood between them than his sibling. He keeps a tidy house and lives a quiet rural life.
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Les nurses his longstanding grudge, peppering it with a curmudgeon’s disdain for everyone else. He’s fond of the bottle and is either staggering around in full growling rant or passed out on the lawn. Colin isn’t averse to scooping the comatose Les up when needed.
Their only communication comes via Colin’s busy border collie Kip, who gallops back and forth between the farmhouses, notes tucked in her collar. Les calls her Flossie when she bounds into view, treating her more kindly than his brother’s letters.
Caton and Neill handle their roles ably. Caton manages to swerve past being a caricature. Neill balances comedic bits with stark heartbreak that comes after an outbreak of a potentially lethal disease shows up in one flock. It leads to an order that all the sheep in the valley be put down to stop the spread.
Destroying their beloved livestock is more than the brothers can bear. Canton rages against the English vet, played by Miranda Richardson, who reluctantly makes the diagnosis that leads to the cull. Her character is an awkward addition, especially when it appears there’s a half-hearted plan to inject a possible romance with Colin.
There’s amusement to come as Colin hatches a desperate scheme, while the real-life horrors of bushfire season bring a different threat to farms and farmers.
Australia seems an ideal place to set a story about sheep farming brothers who must find a way to work together in crisis. Babe set the bar high for whimsy and Aussie can-do farmyard delight.
Rams isn’t Babe. Nor is it Hrútar, which had a moving conclusion that was anything but a happy ending.
Rams stays true to its more light-hearted path, while naming the brothers Grimurson seems a nod of acknowledgement to director Grímur Hákonarson’s original. Rams is a film that goes its own way, settling like a cozy sweater made from beautiful sheep.
Rams. Directed by Jeremy Sims. Written by Jules Duncan and Grímur Hákonarson. Starring Sam Neill, Michael Caton, and Miranda Richardson. Streaming on VOD beginning February 5.