The Finder is a 2001 Australian mystery-thriller film.
Contents
Cast
Paul Mercurio as Leo Natoli
Simon Westaway as Les Kearney
Anja Coleby as Rebecca Castaldi
Alan Lovell as Ace Mulroney
Allison Cratchley as Michelle Reed
Dieter Brummer as Rick Davidson
Rowena Wallace as Irene Davidson
Rob Carlton as Wheels
Gerard Maguire as Sgt Jack Matthews
Vic Rooney as Jim Davidson
Callan Mulvey as Sam Natoli
Caz Lederman as Judy Wheelen
Barry Langrishe as Bob Castaldi
Lani Tupu as Lyle Riskin
Plot
Les Kearney (Simon Westaway) is an ex-cop who specialises in finding missing persons. When he is hired to locate the kidnapped daughter (Anja Coleby) of construction tycoon Bob Castaldi (Barry Langrishe), he encounters numerous murder suspects along the way, as the deadline looms.
Production
The film was an idea of producer-writer Phil Avalon's. It was shot in 2000 with privately raised finance.
Reception
The film was finished by December 2000. It was sold to Israel, China, Russia and the CIR and was screened at the American Film Market in February 2001. It had a one off screening at Avalon's own bar in Sydney before being released on DVD.
The critic for Screen Daily said that:
Unable to unlock the potential of their sun/surf/sleuth concept, Avalon and veteran director Frank Shields instead deliver a compendium of overfamiliar situations, characters and dialogue, with an occasional ill-judged sequence of 'comic relief'. A committed bunch of talented actors do their best to energise an otherwise limp affair whose true home may well prove to be off-peak cable television.