Obliquely evoking Oliver Stone's JFK in its advertising and thematically reminiscent (in parts) of Peter Weir's The Year Of Living Dangerously, Turtle Beach is a torpid political drama about two head-strong women - an Australian photo-journalist and a Chinese hooker-cum-Ambassador's wife - whose paths fatefully cross when both become embroiled in Malaysia's contentious Boat People refugee crisis. Adapted by Ann Turner from Blanche d'Alpuget's award-winning best-seller, it's a well-made but ponderous, invariably polarising pot-boiler whose strident political intrigues may well stir the hearts and minds of those who like their pro-activism writ large, but will largely bore the pants off of the average mainstream audience. Greta Scacchi, Joan Chen, Art Malik and Jack Thompson purposively navigate the narrative's geo-political chessboard but the overall tone is frustratingly dour and moral imperatives remain elusive. A television mini-series may have done the book considerably more justice.
