"Based on a true story", these words at the start of a film you have to take with a grain of salt. I have absolutely no idea how much of this story is true, besides it taking place in 1969, Australia and the dish being involved in the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

The Dish is the story of a large radio dish, located in a sheep paddock, in the small town of Parkes (inland from Sydney). NASA needs their help, because it is the largest dish in the southern hemisphere, it is also their job to receive the television signals when the astonauts are walking on the moon. There are a few problems along the way, but it all turns out well in the end. (As we all know.)

But truly this is not a film about that. Although it does effectively use stock footage of the launch and landing, which are great to see on the big screen. And the film actually manages to build tension in a situation where we already know the end result. The film is a character study about the people involved in this amazing moment in history. Instead of taking the main road and telling us Neil Armstrong's story, we're told the story of some small town Australian blokes. Quite a twist, eh?

The only familiar faces to American audience will be Sam Neill as Cliff the dish director. Sam is, as always, understatedly good as the regular guy caught up in a grand situation, he's an idealist full of good advice. Seinfeid's Patrick Warburton is the NASA man sent down to watch over the operation. He starts out as a bit of hard-ass, but warms up, even though things are getting out of control. There is Mitch the dish guru, a charismatic fellow, who always something funny to say. Glenn the dish's mathematician and computerist, nerdy and shy, he has a crush on a local girl who keeps dropping in. Len a dim-witted local, who NASA has hired to guard the dish, his walkie-talkie babble provides a few of the biggest laughs. And somehow this very well written film manages to cram in many more characters, the mayor who brought the dish to town, his wife who's busy impressing the American Ambassador, the mayor's brown-nosing assistant, the neighbor kid who's obsessed with the military, you get the idea. In their short amount of screen time you really get a feel for who all these people are.