Aboriginal sisters form a girl group and tour Vietnam in this genial, entertaining, cliché-ridden showbiz story from Australia. After hearing the girls sing in a talent show near the Cummeragunja Reserve, a low-rent white musician (Chris O’Dowd of Bridesmaids) offers to manage them if they’ll drop their country-western repertoire for soul music; they recruit a cousin to join them, and there’s the usual ego-driven jostling for the lead singer spot and impromptu naming of the band from an object spotted at the audition. Once director Wayne Blair gets them all to Vietnam, comedy gives way to drama, most of it overplayed, though there’s a nice romance for one of the women in the act (Deborah Mailman in a memorable performance). When the end credits, inevitably, include photos of the real women on whom this is loosely based, they turn out to be much more attractive than the actors playing them, which must be some kind of first.
The Sapphires
PG-13 • 1 hour 43 min • 2012