PJ Hogan has joined forces again with Toni Collette in the auto biographical Mental.

She sits at a round table with her flock.

The youngest gives historys approved answer that Australia was a penal colony.

Well yeah, thats the cover story, Shaz says with a sneer at the mass-accepted lies.

Australia was a lunatic asylum….Our ancestors were loonies and this is the result!

One cannot help but agree with her by the pictures end.

Shirley is a woman with a song in her heart.

Yet, can anyone blame her for retreating into her musical fantasies?

He constantly misses dinner and is publicly out philandering about his suburban kingdom.

All the (white) neighbors judge Shirley and her daughters to be the equivalent of an Aboriginal encampment.

But whos going to watch the children?

Now, she leaves him to raise them?

Luckily on the same day, he discovers Shaz by the side of the road.

The chain-smoking, boozing drifter is the kind of nanny who could make Julie Andrews cry.

The two snobby neighbors in the freakishly clean white walls and white-carpeted house?

The moms an OCD racist and the daughter is a closeted lesbian.

Nobody is any less crazy than Shirley or the rest of the Moochmores.

To paraphrase Jane: they arent mental, theyre just unpopular.

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Mentalis a pop collage of vibrant colors and emotions.

Nobody is happy, yet the movies chipper pace is only that.

The freewheeling joyfulness the movie exhibits is at times infectious, especially during Shazs early scenes.

Michelle (Malorie ONeill) has nightmares of talking aliens?

You also may be schizophrenic, but its no biggie!

All your neighbors think you are nothing but worthless layabouts?

Lets climb a mountain!

The gung-ho spirit of the movie unfortunately peters out by the second half.

The picture also features a very under-utilized but intriguing turn from Liev Schreiber as Trevor Blundell.

Trevor is that simultaneously charismatic and anti-social hunter bang out that all cinematic odes to Australia apparently require.

He is Corals boss who looks after her with the leering gaze of what is hopefully a father figure.

Trevor uses it to terrify the tourists and unwitting horny surfer boys alike.

However, it is made clear very early that he and Shaz coincidentally share a troubled past.

Hogan brings all his kitschy oddball charm toMentalsfrantic tone.

For those who already appreciate Hogans acquired palate, it is a course not to be missed.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5