I used to love this film... time has passed and it doesn't speak to me as much. I think the issues have passed... it's a very Anglo Australian look at Australia, and the disparity in wealth seems to be a bigger issue (I'm sure someone's written a thesis on the relationship between superiority in culture and superiority in economics).
It's not the fault of the movie or play - pieces are of their time. It affects this piece because it's a thesis play rather than a character driven piece: there's the English expat sister, the American expat sister,the stay at home Aussie sister, the old Aussie, the Aussie intellectual... The most character driven stuff is the teenager feeling bad his granddad drowned and a reveal that a sister had an affair with the dead husband... which isn't really exploited.
A lot of the dialogue feels on the nose. It is well made. Nice use of music. I did get into its rhythms.
Very well acted on the whole. John Hargreaves and Joan Plowright almost steal the film; it's a fine final role for Hargreaves, who inhabits his character fully. Ray Barrett is very good. Oh, they're all good.
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