How To Make Gravy ★★★½

IT’S A good idea – turning a popular song into a film.

I’m not sure how often it’s been done before, but 2024’s How to Make Gravy may not be the last.

The great Australian singer/song-writer Paul Kelly released ‘How to Make Gravy’ in 1996 and it has slowly become a national Christmas anthem, telling the story of a husband and father locked up in prison and unable to be with his family and friends.

The title stems from the fact his gravy is second-to-none and will, like him, be sadly missed. It’s likely the only song in existence that features a recipe for gravy prominently in its lyrics.  

Turning a popular five-minute song into a good two-hour movie is never going to be easy. In fact, it’s nigh on impossible for songs like, for example The Beatles’ Love Me Do.

But for Don McLean’s American Pie, Dire Straits’ Telegraph Road or Bruce Springsteen’s The River it’s well and truly possible.

Kelly is Australia’s greatest living musical lyricist and his songs are always rich in detail and emotion and How to Make Gravy is no exception.

Adapted by Megan Washington and Nick Waterman, with Waterman also directing his first feature, the stories of the characters from Kelly’s song are cleverly expanded and the story given a more humorous but still quietly emotional tone.

The casting is very good with Daniel Henshall as gravy-expert Joe, Agathe Rousselle as his wife Rita, Brenton Thwaites as his wayward brother Dan, Kate Mulvany as sister Stella and Damon Herriman as brother-in-law Roger.

There’s also a typically strong cameo from Hugo Weaving as a fellow prison inmate.

Maybe turning Paul Kelly songs into films could become a Christmas tradition? Deeper Water, To Her Door, Sweet Guy, When I First Met You Ma are just some potential winners.

Watched on Foxtel.