If you already love cars - and Ford Falcon XB GT coupes in particular - you'll probably get something out of Love the Beast. You don't need to have Bana explain why he loves his car, which he's had since he was a teenager, because you already get it.

But if you're like me and you view cars as little more than a device to get you from one place to another, you'll probably be left mystified as to why he's so passionate. It's something he doesn't seem to have put much thought into.

Ordinarily, that'd be okay. An intrinsic thing about hobbies is that we don't think too much about why we love them. We know we love them, we know they give us pleasure and that's enough; we don't need to explain the whys and wherefores to someone else.

But, if you're making a film about your passion you have to analyse why you do it, what you get out of it and be able to explain that to others. Even if we don't share the passion we should be able to understand things from your point of view.

This is where Bana and Love the Beast fails. It doesn't answer my basic questions.

Why has he kept the '74 GT coupe since he was a teenager? Why hasn't he bought something better now he's a big movie star? Why does he spend thousands of dollars doing it up? Why, why, why?

It's indicative of Bana's lack of introspection that some of the people he interviews - especially Jeremy Clarkson and Jay Leno - come up with more insightful things about his passion than the man himself. Dr Phil, on the other hand, just offers psycho-babble that makes Bana feel good about himself while glossing over pertinent questions like ``why does a man with a wife and two kids feel the need to risk his life - and their future - by racing a car?''.

Something else to consider when making a self-indulgent film (and there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that genre) is it has to be interesting to other people - otherwise it's just a home movie.

For large parts, Love the Beast is a home movie. Sure, Bana might love his mates who have helped him tinker with the GT over the years. But he shouldn't have put some of them on the screen because they don't have anything to contribute beyond ``yeah, Eric loves his car''.

Sure, having one of those mates find a couple with a rundown Ford might have been interesting to him but it's pretty dull to us. Especially when neither the friend nor the couple says anything more insightful than ``jeez, I love this car''.

We know from the title of the documentary that Bana loves cars. What we want to know is why and that's something Bana's film doesn't really tell us.