For party boy Ruben Guthrie, life is at its peak – until the bottle bites back.
After a few too many drunken nights, his fiancée gives him an ultimatum: one year without a drink or she's out. Battling not only the bottle, but the city that won't let him put it down, 'Ruben Guthrie' is a black comedy with smart-ass social criticism on the Australian drinking culture, boozy escapades and the emotional collisions they can lead to.
“He's charming and charismatic and clever, but he's also very vulnerable and broken and a bit ugly,” says Patrick Brammall who stars as Ruben. “There's a speech in the film where he talks about inheriting the need for a drink. And it's not just some gene that gets thirsty for booze. It's more like are you inheriting your parents and your fore-bearers guilt or shame or grief or something?”
Brendan Cowell and Patrick BrammallA semi-autobiographical tale by Writer/ Director Brendan Cowell, Patrick embodies the dark, personal demons of a man he is physically mistaken for regularly. Openly acknowledging his past, Brendan's story of 'Ruben Guthrie' is based on the 12 months he swore off booze following a few serious benders.
“Life happened to [Ruben] really, and he found the easiest way to deal with life was to escape it. He started self-medicating with booze, rather than talking about his feelings or expressing his confusion or his sadness. Maybe if he had better tools to communicate his feelings and emotions and questions, he wouldn't have needed to escape via alcohol,” says Patrick.
“There's also another speech where he talks about an incident that happened when he was a younger man, late teens, early twenties that really impacted on him, and after that he noticed that he really started to enjoy drinking.”Growing up in a home with fairly light-hearted alcohol exposure, Patrick recalls the first time his dad let him have a beer, and how shocked he was.“I remember going on a family holiday when I was 17 with my mum and dad and my best mate. We went away on a houseboat on the Hawksbury River. My best mate and I convinced my dad to get us a case of beer. Which was outlandish, that we'd even try and negotiated that, and my dad agreed to it... It kind of made a lot of sense – we were on a houseboat and there was nothing stupid we could do. We were always supervised. It was a good way to be introduced to alcohol, it was a good experience, a safe experience.
“I had a Carlton Cold filtered beer. Now, whenever I have one of those cold filtered beers, the first sip I always flashback to that moment – it was a good memory. It's not a weird or crazy memory, it's just a nice thing.”
Patrick Brammall and Abbey LeeNow 37-years old, the actor doesn't have a problem putting a drink down for days and weeks at a time. But, having witnessed the darker side of Australia's drinking culture during adulthood, Patrick holds people in high-regard who have overcome their demons. “In research for this film I went along to an AA meeting. It was the biggest shot in the arm for humanity for me. I thought 'these people are troubled'. You might characterise them as damaged, but they're so courageous and open, and trusting. They witness each other and share with each other. I thought 'wow, this is an incredible show of humanity here, and if these are the broken people in our society, then I think we're doing alright'.
“There's not a great deal of balance that goes on with drinking in our culture. There is a sense of aggressive hospitality – if you're not drinking then: 'why not? If you're not having a drink then I can't have a good time, so, have a drink please.'
“It wouldn't hurt to let young people in on the damage it can do. Not the extreme stuff, not the hyperbolic stuff of 'one beer can end your life'. It's not that at all. It's a slow thing that over time you look around and go 'oh shit, I'm doing this a bit too much now and people are suffering'. It's not problematic until it's a problem. Alcohol in and of itself is not a good or bad thing. It's just when it starts being a moderate thing or a balance thing when it starts to be a problem.”
Abbey Lee, Patrick Brammall and Robyn NevinPulling off such a convincing performance without having much in common with Ruben, Patrick says he can relate so far as the insecurities that Ruben's trying to make up for. “In his case it's the booze. That's not my particular demon, but I can relate to a guy who's trying to find his way, trying to make a change, trying to better himself and doing it a bit blindly – with and without support... It was good to get all the colours of the character in there.”
With witty roles in 'Upper Middle Bogan', 'The Moodys' and most recently Josh Lawson's 'The Little Death', Patrick is a funny-man on and off stage – but won't go back to doing it for a living. “I gave [stand-up comedy] a go when I was a younger man, about 22. I did maybe half a dozen gigs and thought, it's not worth it. My entire life became a quest for material and I was so nervous before I performed. It was never huge, ecstatic highs, it was just relief that it was over. So it wasn't really worth it then.”
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With a lead role in the six-episode supernatural/ drama series 'Glitch', which debuted on ABC last week, Patrick is also in post-production on the Stan-commissioned comedy series 'No Activity', co-created with Trent O’Donnell. And Ruben? “Hopefully things turn out well for Ruben, for a sequel you need some dramatic exciting incidents, so you know, never say never.”
Now, you've probably come to the end of this story and are thinking: 'but there has to be ONE funny, boozy story he told you?' Well... “Sure, there are stories of falling asleep under a stage, I don't know where I was, somewhere in Sydney. It was early morning and I woke up and there was a kid playing with a puppet next to me. And I still think twice about drinking Cider after living in England and getting a keg from a nearby cider farm... We've all got these stories, but nothing that leaps out. Nothing to hit the headlines unfortunately.”
'Ruben Guthrie' is in cinemas 16 July.
