About
Charlie and Grace McFarland are a loving, salt of the earth couple in their late 60s, and tonight, is their forty fifth wedding anniversary. Family and friends pack the celebrations and the dance floor is crowded. Charlie and Grace dance happily in amongst the crowd when suddenly Grace appears unsteady on her feet. She collapses, tragically struck down by a fatal stroke. As he’s lost his best friend and soul mate, Charlie is devastated and withdraws into his grief.
Charlie’s youngest son, “Boots” who has become largely estranged from his father in recent years is deeply concerned by his father’s decline. After visiting him one morning he decides something needs to be done and it is up to him to do it.
Boots convinces his reluctant father to take a fishing trip with him, but it is not until they are well on their way does he confess that they are not actually going to fish at their favorite local spot, but off the top of Australia at Cape York 3,000 miles away! The feisty old curmudgeon wants no part of his son’s crazy idea and does his best to escape, but Boots is on to him and the resulting trip takes the two across some of the most beautiful locations and landscapes in Australia. As the journey proceeds, Charlie becomes distracted from his grief and his natural mischievousness starts to return with Boots as the object of his jokes and pranks. Is it playful mischief or a real desire to hurt his son as he tries getting the best of Boots by trying to set him up with an uninterested woman and confessing some of his son’s adolescent misadventures to a radio talk show. Its funny stuff, but not when the joke is on you.
But when a young beautiful hitchhiker, Jess, joins them, her natural charm and upbeat outlook on life helps them to understand how important they really are to each other and Charlie and Boots launch into the rest of their journey and some hilarious adventures including an encounter with Jess’ sex mad boyfriend, barely surviving an explosive fuelled rodeo bull ride, a full body massage and a run in with some of the toughest grandmothers ever to swing a bowling ball.
As they get closer to their destination and the quality time together increases, old wounds are reopened and family secrets exposed but for the first time in their lives rehashing their old problems and fears helps them to overcome the rift in their relationship. Boots starts to come to terms with his failed marriage, and they begin to accept their grief.
Short of their destination, they run out of road and find themselves passengers in a rickety old plane with a possibly suicidal pilot dipping, looping and stalling over ancient rain forest and coral reefs, eventually touching down on the sands of Cape York. Charlie and Boots are finally where they need to be – a place where what isn’t said is as important as what is and where family ties, no matter how imperfect, are the ties that truly bind.
