A film made with confidence of its market and what sort of film it is. A bright, positive three girls movie - we haven't made enough of them in this country. Beresford directs with customary energy though I wish he'd worked on the dialogue with another writer - a bit of it was on the nose.
He's cast it extremely well - Angourie Rice and Rachel Taylor are especially fine and Julia Ormond adds some gravitas. Susie Porter and Shane Jacobsen feel old Australia - Jacobsen's character displays the conservatism of the time... someone who isn't bad who just lacks the leap of imagination. Ryan Corr is a good actor but his accent was distracting - this day and age I think accent acting is on the way out. I wish a genuine Hungarian had played the part.
While it was nice to watch something good hearted and positive I did wish maybe there had been more dramatic heft - the advantage of three girl movies is someone can go through a harder time. But here all the problems are easily solved - a woman worries about her husband not touching her... so he touches her (he freaks out but comes back); Taylor needs love... finds it; Rice worries about getting into uni... gets in. Couldn't, I don't know, Noni Hazlehurst have died or something.
And at the end when they all ask Rice what she wants to be and she goes "novelist.. actor.. poet.. maybe all of them" I did think "you spoilt boomer. You're going to get a heap of cool bureaucrat jobs take your super and real estate and retire to Barcelona." That is generational envy.
Still, a good movie.
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