Bill Kerr

Eric Roberts, young, charming, and handsome, does a rare comic turn as an American Coca-Cola executive with a honeyed Georgia drawl sent Down Under in this congenial little Australian comedy. As the zealous, unfailingly polite eccentric declares economic war on a veritable back-country feudal lord who runs his own steam-powered soda plant (Bill Kerr), Robertsís enchantingly goofy secretary (Greta Scacchi) plots a campaign of seduction that includes a Santa suit that explodes in an orgiastic blizzard of feathers.

Indonesia 1965. Revolution is in the air. Foreign journalists covering the feverish unrest are kept at arm’s length by the wary Sukarno government. But with the right contacts, you can get a real story. Australian reporter Guy Hamilton is after that kind of story, but he knows the moere telling of it will betray his source. Mel Gibson is Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver is an enigmatic embassy aide in this taut drama directed by Peter Weir (The Truman Show).