Goddess

Boyzone’s Ronan Keating wins his first acting gig in this squirmingly quirky and feelgood Aussie musical romcom. The idea isn’t so bad: Keating plays a whale-fancying marine biologist who moves his family from London to Tasmania for work. (Stop laughing at the back.) While he’s off stroking humpbacks, he leaves his wife Elspeth (Laura Michelle Kelly) a webcam so they can stay in touch. She’s a frustrated singer who starts singing kitsch, 1950s-style numbers to camera, becoming a viral hit and attracting the attentions of an ad agency. The whole thing is irritatingly perky and sitcom-like. And Keating is pretty charmless. (The savvy producers may even have written a clause into his contract requiring him to appear topless in no less than two-thirds of his scenes). On the plus side, ‘Kath & Kim’ actress Magda Szubanski is brilliant as a bitchy advertising boss. And there’s a funny scene as Elspeth flies to Sydney, leaving the kids behind with a nanny. Fantasising about the plane crashing, she imagines the judgemental tabloid headlines: ‘Selfish woman gets what she deserves.’