Stuart:

Now at the end of their course, four university friends contend with falling in love, breaking the law and other tough situations in Dealing with Destiny. Blake (Luke Arnold) is a physics student (we know this because he wears GLASSES) who is working on converting soundwaves to energy in his dorm room as part of his uni project. After a series of misunderstandings, a fallout with one of his best mates, Lloyd (Clayton Moss), he finds himself effectively running around campus a lot and regularly injuring himself in an attempt to save both his friendship and his university degree.

This Sydney-based comedy is a hotchpotch of lazy writing and immature humour, and there’s nothing particularly clever or emotive about the experience. We’re apparently dealing with a group of uni students at graduating age, yet their general immaturity would be better suited to a high school-aged cast. All the regular clichés are brought out – there’s the guy that loves his car more than anything else in the world (Roger Sciberra) and the fat and therefore repellent guy (Steve Maresca) who desperately wants a shag only to fail again and again – but there’s nothing charming about their stories at all. The sexist representation of the female cast is tiresome and oh so outdated, whilst one’s suspension of disbelief takes a beating from a narrative that comprises nothing more than vague, barely strung together ideas.

The cast themselves seem rather talented, and Arnold and Catherine Jermanus (who plays the otherworldly Zara) certainly show a great deal of charisma and promise in general, but the film has them participate in embarrassing scene after embarrassing scene. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of the cast isn’t enough to save this film.

The cinematography is clean and colourful, whilst the production values are generally quite decent. The locations include much of Sydney University and, as such, the film has a great sense of place.

Dealing with Destiny is a lowbrow comedy that doesn’t even appear to have any aspirations. The likeability of the primary cast does nothing to help the poor dialogue and unengaging story. At least it can’t be said that the film is predictable – the scattergun approach to the narrative means that the film is constantly making abrupt shifts in tone that don’t make much sense anyway.