Aubrey MaloneA drunken revelation at a wedding threatens to ruin the lives of two families in this engrossing Australian drama which contains all the big themes: betrayal, loss, infidelity, subterfuge, death.
Christian (Paul Schneider) is coming home from America to the logging town in New South Wales where he grew up. He’s there to attend the wedding of his father Henry (Geoffrey Rush) to a woman significantly younger than him.
Henry is about to close down the town’s mine. This hardly does wonders for his popularity. He’s also had a shady past. His first wife committed suicide many years ago. A number of unanswered questions surround the circumstances of her death. The film ticks towards their exposure like a well-planted bomb.
Christian’s wife is threatening to leave him because of his drinking. He drowns his sorrows with his childhood friend, Oliver (Ewen Leslie). Oliver’s daughter, Hedwig, is going through a rite of passage into womanhood with her troubled boyfriend. The lives of those around her – Oliver, her mother Charlotte (Miranda Otto), her grandfather Walter – are on the point of unravelling.
The stage is set for a dramatic finale and we certainly get that under the carefully orchestrated direction of Simon Stone. He also wrote the screenplay. At times the emotions seem to be on the point of spilling over into soap opera land but he manages to keep just the right side of melodrama as events conspire towards a potentially tragic denouement.
The cinematography is rich throughout, whether Stone is presenting us with atmospheric nature scenes or high voltage indoor ones. There are no false notes struck with the performances. As Hedwig, Odessa Young stands out most particularly. She’s a name to watch for the future.
The manner in which her life is damaged is allied to the plight of a duck Henry has wounded.
Thankfully Stone resists the temptation to draw too convenient a parallel between it and Hedwig as it flies away – healed – towards its new freedom. Her own recovery, if it occurs at all, will be more tentative.
Final analysis
In the final analysis this is a film about the forgiveness and reconciliation that accrue from a crisis – or rather two crises. Veteran Sam Neill plays Walter with an edgy kindliness. The other cast members were unknown to me apart from Rush.
I’ve long been an admirer of Australian cinema. All too often we lump it into a low rent Crocodile Dundee pigeonhole but this continent is up there with the best European offerings when it puts its mind to it.
The Daughter is based on an Ibsen play, The Wild Duck. Because it’s showing at the Irish Film Institute – a film club – it doesn’t carry a cert. I imagine this would be 15A if it did because of some sexual content.
It’s a powerful story that should resonate with viewers, especially considering the epidemic of teenage suicides we’re undergoing in this country at the present time.
Very Good ****