The Sapphires is Australia’s answer to A League of Their Own: a wartime dramedy in which sassy sisters Gail, Cynthia and Julie (Deborah Mailman, Miranda Tapsell and Jessica Mauboy) and their cousin Kay (Shari Sebbens) pursue their talents and work through personal rivalries, managed/mentored by a jaded drunk (Chris O’Dowd, last seen in Bridesmaids).
Irish Dave’s soul fandom also recalls the subaltern analogy in The Commitments. But The Sapphires aligns its indigenous heroines with American blackness in both less gritty and more complex ways. It’s a fluffy tale that never lets anything really bad happen to its characters. Its origins as musical theatre peep through in signposty dialogue, romantic arcs and ‘singing your feelings’ scenes. The soul numbers, led by the appealing Mauboy, are standouts.
But the film’s handling of race and sex isn’t simplistic. In Vietnam’s black GI subculture, the Sapphires luxuriate in being treasured, rather than reviled, for their blackness, yet Gail won’t let light-skinned Kay slip comfortably back into her heritage after disowning it years earlier. Oddly, Dave’s whiteness isn’t similarly problematic in his romance with Gail, but the delightful chemistry between the straight-talking Mailman and lovably hangdog O’Dowd powers through such quibbles.
Thanks to Hopscotch, we have 5 dbls to give away! To enter, email brisbane.win@thethousands.com.au with the subject ‘there’s no crying in soul’ 
Australian Competitions Club
