‘I am left grinning’: why The Dish is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers picking their most loved comfort films is a 2000 Australian gem featuring the late Sam Neill

After the shock of Sam Neill’s death, I was surprised just how hard the news hit me. I don’t usually take a celebrity death so deeply to heart and yet here I was struggling to stem the weeping. There is no denying he holds a special place in my movie-watching life: he’s Dr Alan Grant from Jurassic Park, for goodness sake. I first saw the Spielbergian masterpiece at the age of five and Neill’s passionate, intelligent and empathetic scientist was the coolest hero my young mind could hope for (when it wasn’t overwhelmed with terror).

Then, in my early teens, I got introduced to another hero role of Neill’s, the equally passionate, intelligent and empathetic scientist Cliff Buxton, from The Dish. Directed by Rob Sitch, the 2000 based-on-a-true-story drama is a warm hug and a joke from a dear friend. It has a sharp and silly script that belies its charmingly gentle demeanour and it’s about the 1969 moon landing, which has always had the power to get me emotional at the utterance of “One small step … ”