TV Reviews : ‘Captain Johnno’ a Satisfying Tale About an Outcast

“Captain Johnno,” a two-part “Wonderworks” that airs tonight and next Saturday (7 p.m. on Channels 28 and 50), is a muscular treat from Australia about a boy set apart from others by his deafness and his intense love of nature.

Johnno (Damien Walters, partially hearing-impaired himself) is an 11-year-old boy in a small Australian fishing village in the ‘50s. He is teased by bullies, mistreated by an officious teacher and made the scapegoat by some adults, including his father (John Waters), who thinks life was unfair in giving him a deaf son.

When his caring big sister (Rebecca Sykes) goes off to boarding school, Johnno’s only friend is an adult, Tony (Joe Petruzzi), an Italian immigrant whose lack of English makes him an outcast in the insular town too.

The strength of Roy George’s script is that Johnno is not made easily lovable; he’s a difficult boy--sullen, guarded and angry at the world that rejects him. He’s at his happiest playing pirate on a derelict boat on the beach, or swimming in the sea, freeing crabs from fishermen’s nets.

The strength of the film, directed by Mario Andreacchio, is in the fine ensemble cast. Walters’ infrequent smile is the sun breaking through clouds. Petruzzi combines a strong physical presence with endearing tenderness.

The second part of “Captain Johnno” is predictable; Johnno runs away and the crisis creates change and new understanding in those who rejected him. But Johnno isn’t off the hook. At the satisfying conclusion, he is beginning to learn a lesson about reaching out too.