Movie Review: "The Merger" Is a Winning Aussie Comedy About Asylum Seekers (and Footy)

It’s one thing to mean well. Damian Callinan actually does well with his good-hearted and genuine footy comedy The Merger.

Well, The Merger is only covertly a footy comedy. Adapted by Callinan from his acclaimed stand-up set of the same name, this is a piece of advocacy in favour of settling asylum seekers on our shores.

You don’t usually get that kind of content when watching, say, the AFL Footy Show, so it’ll probably come as a big surprise to unaware punters—and it’ll hopefully be heard loud and clear.

Here, Callinan reprises the part of his on-stage creation Troy Carrington, an erudite ex-AFL star whose career fell apart before it really began. (He mangled his leg "in nine places" running through a Grand Final banner.)

He’s now better known in his small country town, Bodgy Creek, for ruining the local industry by protesting the logging plant. A pariah, he lives on the outskirts, where he’s visited solely by 10-year-old Neil (Rafferty Grierson), an unflinching documentarian in a onesie.

That is until Bodgy Creek's beloved yet failing local football team, the Roosters, ask Carrington to coach. He has one condition: the refugees who are being settled in town—and are similarly spurned—get to play as well.

It all unfolds pretty conventionally from there, as far as sports movies go, with the diverse group of underdogs learning how to get along and eventually finding themselves in contention for the flag.

But The Merger, directed gently by Mark Grentell, prioritises team-bonding over sporting sequences, with Carrington and company absorbing the cultures and the harrowing tales of persecution from Sayyid (Fayssal Bazzi), Suresh (Sahil Saluja), Tou Pou (Harry Tseng) and Didier (Francis Kamara). In return, the refugees learn their teammates’ boofhead ways.

Awww, right? Of course, good intentions have resulted in plenty of crappy flicks over the years. Thankfully, the heart here is matched by the laughs. As a comedian, Callinan often sneaks hyper-literate 'wait for it' jokes under the cover of his ocker ‘Strayan squawk. The Merger similarly fuses low-brow comedy with the high, hilariously. The clever-but-never-too-clever sense of humour makes The Merger feel like it’s for everyone, and that means its message—on the value of multiculturalism and the cruelty of detention—will reach beyond the already-converted.

I left The Merger in a reverie, charmed by this latest great Australian comedy about identity, which deserves to go straight to the pool room alongside The Castle and, more recently, Ali’s Wedding. However, despite kicking so many goals, one aspect got stuck in my craw: Where were the Indigenous Australians?

It’s either a horrendous oversight or an admission by the filmmakers that this particular racial divide can’t be bridged with a frothy comedy. (Think back to the Adam Goodes 'booing' incident of 2015 and be reminded of the vilification still exhibited by some football fans, despite the code's large number of Aboriginal players.) Callinan and Grentell give compelling roles to John Howard (not the ex-PM), as the bigoted club chairman; Kate Mulvany, as a widow trying to keep the town from tearing apart; and to plenty of other actors who get to be oddballs with names such as Goober, Snapper and Harpo. Including the performers portraying the resettled refugees, the ensemble shines. Yet how can it be that The Merger has no opportunities for Indigenous actors or characters, in this, a rural football film? 

Whatever the justification, it’s a massive missed opportunity. Not because The Merger could—or even should—correct all of Australia’s issues in one go, but because this inclusive Australian story is missing some key Australian voices.

4/5

In Australian cinemas 6 September. Rated M for coarse language.

Header Image: Umbrella Entertainment