‘The Deb’ Review – Quirky Australian Musical Gets Lost In Translation

The Deb is an original musical comedy about two teenage cousins who dig deep to find self-acceptance and a date to the Debutante Ball in a small country town in Australia. Originally written for the stage through a theatre workshop out of Rebel Wilson’s annual scholarship program. Wilson has made the project a feature film and her directorial debut. The project stars two upcoming Australian stage performers in Natalie Abbott as Taylah Simpkins and Charlotte MacInnes as her cousin, Maeve Barker. 

The story follows the familiar fish-out-of-water theme when rich, privileged, and wanna-be activist Maeve finds herself expelled from school after flashing her classmates in protest of a school dress code, despite the fact that her mom is the principal. She gets shipped off to stay with her cousin in the small, rural town of Dunburn, who’s dealing with a drought and where the biggest event in the town is the debutante ball. Taylah is the daughter of the Mayor, who’s mostly outcast and bullied by her peers.

If you didn’t know this was a musical, the film doesn’t give you much time to settle in. The first song kicks off about 30 seconds in, and is probably the highlight of the musical numbers for much of the film. The cynically-titled and written, “F**k My Life” has all the energy and bombast of a staged performance, with choreographed sequences with an ensemble of performers. It reads like a stage show come to life. 

As the film goes on, we see several more of these performances but each one loses a bit of its luster as they happen. It becomes apparent that the thought process became to just take what was done on stage and put it on screen, and this is the biggest problem with The Deb. When translating a musical from stage to screen, a lot of things have to change, and that includes tone and pace. The desire to cram in as many songs as possible starts to slow the film down, and because so many of these performances are elaborate or fanciful, it takes you out of the story that is happening. Oftentimes during crucial moments of character development. 

The most egregious example is in the middle of a fight that is broken up by a choreographed dance sequence that feels completely tonally out of place for the situation that has happened before and the one taking place. In most instances, it feels as if the most pressing aspect that was leaned into for much of the film was comedy, which would’ve been fine for the earlier portion of the film, but starts to take away from pertinent moments later in the film when they keep getting interjected for quirky bits of humor. 

As far as the performers go, Simpkins and MacInnes are tremendous. They deliver in both the dramatic and musical aspects. Both being veterans of musical theater, they command their characters with depth and understanding. Also standout is Stevie Jean, who plays the local town bully. She gets several moments to shine both musically and performance-wise which bring a depth to a character that is usually not reserved for that type of antagonist. Wilson herself also plays a character in the film as Jannette, the over-obsessive mom pushing her kid in the spotlight. Unfortunately, we don’t get much behind the veil of her actions and Wilson herself is still stuck in her Pitch Perfect “Fat Amy” persona and mannerisms to bring anything unique to the character.

There are moments of genuine catharsis throughout The Deb that, if reworked, would make for a more complete story whether it was done on stage or on film. As it’s presently constructed, the stage is far more suited for its level of quirky absurdity, but for Wilson, it marks a competent debut as a director, proof that she can step behind the camera and see a project to fruition, but it’ll be a while before she develops true vision and craft as a director. The Deb is funny at times, has some solid musical numbers and some standout performances. It’s a good start, but more than anything, we really can’t wait to see what everyone does next.

The Deb is currently on Digital platforms courtesy of Sunrise Films. 

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