Miranda Otto, Rhys Ifans, Rhys Muldoon, Julia Zemiro
Sydneysider Danny Morgan, a simple man who works for a concrete company, is prone to daydreaming to escape his life; these daydreams often involve his unique ideas. Lately, those daydreams have been about his imminent vacation with long-time girlfriend, real-estate agent Trudy Dunphy--a camping trip he's been planning for a year. Eventually learning that Trudy lied to get out of the trip to spend time with a famous client, television sportscaster Sandy Upman, is just the latest manifestation that Trudy is drifting away from Danny, whom she sees as just a concrete man while she aspires to something or someone more exciting, like Sandy. With the vacation now a no-go leaving him with a couple of weeks free with nothing to do but let his mind wander, Danny, with an unexpected windfall of free giant balloons, ponders whether they, filled with helium and tied to a deckchair, would be able to lift him in the deckchair up into the air. Danny's balloon deckchair experiment will have not only a profound effect on him, but that of Glenda Lake of Clarence, a lonely parking-enforcement police officer who has felt lost in life, while Trudy also sees Danny's 15 minutes of fame as a possible restart to their relationship.—Huggo