Is it unfair to keep comparing this to The Father? I mean, they’re both films predominantly about the personal and familial effects of dementia, they both made it to Aussie cinemas this year, and they have diametrically opposite methodologies and tones when it comes to the subject matter. With just how highly I rate The Father, it seems like this film can’t help but underperform next to that level of efficacy. But no, I’m going to keep that contained in this paragraph, because while this isn’t as effective as The Father, it has more than enough of its own engagement value to make its mark.
Noni Hazlehurst is an absolute pleasure in the lead role. A woman with dementia who wakes up to a sudden state of lucidity, her prevailing mission to ‘fix’ what’s gone wrong with her family since her placement in a nursing home holds the film together and she gives it all the life required. Seeing her in the midst of dementia confusion is quite affecting, as is seeing her react to herself in that state, and with the consistent reminder that her current lucidity is temporary, there’s a lot of drive to see her succeed. And her family adds to that effect, with Claudia Karvan and Stephen Curry as her children bringing quite the emotional punch to the proceedings. Curry in particular impresses here, laying claim to one of the film’s most affecting moments when his walls come down and past events properly ring through.
The film at large starts out on a weirdly jovial note. Seeing June come to her senses and ditch the nursing home has a similar effect to the Jim Broadbent storyline in Cloud Atlas in how quirkily it’s presented. Christopher Gordon’s soundtrack doesn’t help with that impression, as it starts out quite overwhelming in its orchestral whimsy. But for as off-putting as that is at first, it ultimately serves the production well overall because it’s part of the welcome misdirect of the main story. While it starts out with June wanting to put things right with the little time she has where she’s cognizant of the problems, what’s actually going on isn’t nearly as cut and dry.
The more we learn about what’s happened over the past five years, the more cracks appear in June’s intent to fix everything. Part of that is down to her mainly wanting to return things to how they were (because waking up and discovering that five years have flown by would do a number on anyone), and part of that is because quite a few of the evident problems began with her interference in the first place. By the end, it becomes less about sorting out her kids and grandkids and more about resolving her own actions, leading to a third-act road trip that is (admittedly) a real switch-up from what came before but leads to the film’s larger resolutions.
It initially presents itself as aged wisdom making a comeback to sort out suburban family dilemmas, but it gradually reveals the complexities behind that idea, not the least of which being how trying to wind back the clock to ‘better days’ just isn’t realistic. And that’s what really won me over about this film, even more so than it managing to get a few good tears out of me (I’ll say again: Stephen Curry knocked it out of the park on this one). It prepares the audience for raw sentimentality, but the writing and overall direction from JJ Winlove soon proves unsatisfied with settling for such things, instead going for a more realistic depiction of such melodramatic plotting where (*minor spoilers*) not every dilemma presented is resolved. And even the ones that do aren’t done cleanly, going against a fairly ingrained norm for family drama flicks.
So, yeah, it may not be as crushing as other films I’ve seen recently, but for a local effort, it’s a genuine and welcome surprise in how well it deals with the psychological subject matter. The humour is well-placed and effective, the drama hits pretty damn hard at times, the acting shines at every turn, and the way it sets up easygoing treacle and progressively swerves against it earns a fair amount of respect from me for the successful gambit.
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