Just Us

Just Us (1986), aired: 13 August 1990, Channel Seven.

Catherine plays: Jessica Taylor.

Just Us is a telemovie, based on the true story by Gabrielle Carey, of the same name. I have read the book and seen the movie, and the movie does keep in quite well with the book. If there was one small thing that I could criticise with the movie, it is that I don't think it was quite long enough. Just Us runs for a little over 90 minutes; when watching it, I felt like it should have been another half an hour longer. In saying that though, I do like the movie.

Jessica Taylor is a 20-year-old journalist who works for The Sun newspaper in Sydney (though most of the movie was filmed in Melbourne, including when Jessica travels to Adelaide). It is clear that she has really only just started her journalism career, and one of her jobs was to write a story on prisons. To do this, she goes to Parramatta Jail during an open day and watches a debate. It is there that she meets long-term prisoner Billy Carter (Scott Burgess), and wants to interview him. He is very sullen towards Jessica, particularly during her first few visits. His sullen responses come from the fact that he "doesn't want to be part of any bullshit". It is only after her third visit that he starts opening up to her a bit. As they begin to grow closer to one another (through their contact visits and the drama group visits), Jessica also gathers information on Billy's past crimes and tries to have the extradition order against him dropped. This attempt, as well as an attempt by the two of them to get married, both fail, and Billy is eventually taken back to South Australia to serve the rest of his sentence.

In my opinion, there are some really good things about Just Us. I liked that even though it is not meant to be a light-hearted movie (in fact, it is almost quite the opposite), there are still some good moments in it that made me smile (or laugh). An example of this light-heartedness is in the beginning of the movie, during the debate, The Mouth (Kym Gyngell) says some things which are later mocked by Max (Jay Mannering), to which The Mouth replies "you'll get yours, ya poofter".

There are good performances by the main actors in Catherine and Scott, as well as Jay Mannering as Max (a prisoner), and Merfyn Owen as Royce (a resentful Parramatta warder). Gina Riley is also good as Jessica's supportive best friend Cathy.

Ted Roberts wrote the screenplay of Just Us, he was later one of the executive producers on Water Rats. And (obviously), Catherine and Scott went on to work with each other on Water Rats as well.