Entertainment

‘Mental’ review

The hippie heroine of this wacky Aussie comedy cheerfully theorizes that Australia was actually originally settled not by convicts but by mental patients — which may possibly explain the antics of Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, among others.

Played by a full-throttle Toni Collette, she’s been literally picked up off the street by the exasperated mayor (Anthony LaPaglia) of Dolphin Heads, Queensland, to care for his five daughters, who are beginning to exhibit the kind of manic behavior that’s forced him to pack their addled mother off for an extended “rest.’’

Collette preaches that, really, everybody’s crazy and needs to learn to be more accepting. It’s a theme that can be discerned even during director P.J. Hogan’s Hollywood period (“My Best Friend’s Wedding’’) and goes all the way back to the Australian “Muriel’s Wedding,’’ which introduced both he and Collette to global audiences.

Both of these are better films than “Mental,’’ though the scenery Down Under looks great and you certainly can’t write off a film where Liev Schreiber plays a shark hunter.