Rams review – sad and sweet look at a rural community in crisis

If you’ve ever wondered whether a film revolving around sheep testicles can also be sweet and accessible, Rams is here to answer your query with a resounding “yes.” This Australian remake of the celebrated 2015 Icelandic tale of fraternal conflict and sheep farming retains some of the Nordic edge of the original, but the change of setting to warmer climes also brings an additional earnestness that makes for easier, if sometimes uneven, viewing.

Sam Neill and Michael Caton play Colin and Les Grimurson (their surname being a neat little reference to the director of the original film), a pair of feuding sheep-breeding brothers who share a large plot of land but haven’t talked to one another in years. Instead, they communicate by attaching notes to the collar of the dog they each think they own – Colin calls it “Kip,” Les has it go by “Floss” – or, on occasion, taking drunken potshots at each other’s houses.

Neill is reliably great as the gruff but good-natured Colin, genuinely fond of his animals and a much-loved figure in the local community, out in an isolated portion of Western Australia. Caton’s performance is rather broader, though, as the embittered and drunken Les, and it’s hard to warm to him enough for the emotional climaxes of the final act to really hit home as the brothers are forced to work together.

Tragedy strikes the region when Les’s sheep are found to have a lethal and highly contagious disease that prompts the state authorities, represented by a brilliantly asinine city-boy inspector, to barge in and slaughter all the livestock of every nearby farm. Secretly, though, Colin manages to save four members of his herd – three ewes and his prize stud ram – and renovates his bathroom to provide them with a living space whilst fighting a constant battle to mask their sounds and scents from visitors.

Rams is at its best when it’s just Neill (an avid farmer in real life) and the four sheep, all of whom give ridiculously funny animal performances. It must have been a hell of a task corralling the herd, but it pays off, as excellent animal handling and editing grants the adorably playful sheep a great sense of comic timing. Colin’s single focus on keeping these sheep safe long enough to get lambs out of them starts to take over his life, but the conflicts this causes with his friends and old flame, local vet Kat (Miranda Richardson) get repetitive pretty quickly.

That said, this is still a sad and sweet look at how men attempt to deal with loneliness, Colin retreating into caring for contraband animals while Les sleeps off hangovers in the roaring Australian sun, both scared of putting in the kind of emotional work that would actually remedy their situation. Director Jeremy Sims keeps things entertaining and amiable throughout without losing sight of the damaged psyches at the story’s heart, and though the sweeping vistas and raging bushfires could have done with more visual pizzazz, the tonal control here is impressive.

Though Rams doesn’t always escape the nagging air of over-familiarity that plagues most English-language remakes, Sims and writer Jules Duncan manage to make this a worthwhile translation, anchored by a top-form Sam Neill and some of the best animal acting you could hope to see.

Rams is now available on various streaming platforms.