REVIEW: Look at True History of the Kelly Gang film premiering next month

True History of the Kelly Gang follows his story from childhood to hanging, but its telling is far from orthodox.

Viewers are told at the outset "nothing you're about to see is true", with the film based on novelist Peter Carey's book.

We see a young Kelly (Orlando Schwerdt) coarsened as he spies on his mother Ellen (Essie Davis) intimate with a policeman before she sells him to bushranger Harry Power (Russell Crowe).

Power then leads him from his selection (Winton Wetlands) into snow-covered high country, where the seated body of bushranger Dan Morgan is tied to a tree.

Kelly is told he is leaving his mongrel life with Power saying "you're a bushranger".

After learning he had been sold, Kelly quits Power and his adult version (George MacKay) emerges with a bareknuckle fight scene.

It is then we meet the gang members, firstly Joe Byrne (Sean Keenan) and then Dan Kelly (Earl Cave) and Steve Hart (Louis Hewison) who like to wear dresses.

A love interest for Ned is introduced at a brothel where mounted trooper Alexander Fitzpatrick (Nicholas Hoult) is also a client.

The desire of Fitzpatrick for Kelly's sister Kate ends in a confrontation with the lawman telling the family "what is it with you Irish, too stupid to help yourself".

Kelly then brutally carries out his massacre with his cross-dressing mates before Byrne suggests they escape to the US because they have donuts there.

There is no reference to Stringybark Creek by name, just as Jerilderie, where Kelly's letter which features, is not mentioned.

Snow takes centre stage as Kelly prepares his Glenrowan train derailment plan by putting sticks on white ground to depict the rails before rallying his supporters like a football coach at three quarter time.

The Glenrowan Inn itself is a spartan premises, with a pool table and names etched into the interior walls.

Running through the film is an allusion to the slit made famous by the helmet worn at Glenrowan by Kelly.

It can also be seen as a metaphor for the way we look inside the outlaw's mind.

Kelly admirers and detractors each have something to take from the film with the heroic role of Glenrowan school teacher Thomas Curnow depicted, but the deeper message is about the psyche of the bushranger.

It's how he was influenced primarily by his mother and the British-Irish divisions of colonial Victoria.

True History of the Kelly Gang is a stirring take on a story told more times on film than any other in Australian history and worth a look, even though denizens of Kelly Country will be shaking their heads at times.

The film will appear in cinemas from January 9 and be streamed on Stan from Australia Day.

The closeness between the big screen debut and streaming upload has prompted Wangaratta's cinema centre not to host screenings.

Albury's Regent Cinemas is also unlikely to show True History of the Kelly Gang.

Spokeswoman Kelly Davis said "it's not confirmed, but it's doubtful".

The lack of fanfare around the premiere in the North East is in contrast to the Mick Jagger Ned Kelly film which had its national debut at the Glenrowan Memorial Hall in July 1970.