What seems to be the trouble?: Jodie Foster in ‘A Private Life’.
A PRIVATE LIFE *** (103 minutes; subtitled) M
In what is essentially a classy crime dramedy, a fluently French speaking Jodie Foster (how many feathers can her cap hold?) plays Parisian psychiatrist Lilian Steiner who, with her loving ex (veteran Daniel Auteuil in hefty support), investigates the sudden death of a patient.
Considered a suicide, Lilian thinks it was murder, her investigation entwined with a spot of hypnosis suggesting her past life as a wartime orchestra player who had a relationship with the victim. Being Jewish, an important part of her character, she was also hounded by the Nazis.
Unsurprisingly, those close to Lilian suspect she might just be losing her marbles, and while director Rebecca Zlotowski (co-writing with Anne Berest and Gaelle Mace) maintains a strong dramatic edge to the proceedings she doesn’t forget to have a bit of fun.
A solid treat, buoyed by the magnificent Foster, whose career-long ability to hold the frame remains undiminished.
MOTHER MARY * (110 minutes) MA
In a gleaming, hi-gloss dump of pretentious twaddle Gaga-like pop star Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) goes begging to fashion designer and former friend Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel) to design a flash new outfit.
The highly photogenic leads try hard as they earnestly unpack the rift between them but writer/director David Lowery – who gave us Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and the terrific Robert Redford film The Old Man & the Gun – can’t bring this requiem for a long-standing friendship to life.
Tedious and dull, Hathaway does well in the performance segments. Back in the days when DVDs were a thing, there would likely have been a reel of these musical segments, which feature some impressive choreography.
LIFE COULD BE A DREAM * (82 minutes) M
Good intentions do not a movie make. Same goes for pretty pictures.
They’re the two main issues hobbling a chronically under-developed story about a mother (Maeve Dermody) who leaves her marriage to an abusive husband (Alexander England) by taking her son (Sonny McGee) to a mansion she is selling.
There are whiffs of story in a meandering narrative that touches on issues of coersion, physical, emotional and financial abuse but unfortunately, and despite a top cast putting in good work, none of it comes together.
Way too much time is spent by director Jasmin Tarasin (from a screenplay by Courtney Collins) on arthouse imagery and chats between mother and son while almost no attention is given to making the various story elements coalesce into a coherent narrative that actually has some drive and dramatic tension.
Given the important subject matter the direction is far too relaxed and insouciant, the film apparently satisfied with merely mentioning issues rather than confronting and tackling them. Example: the story thread about the husband’s pursuit literally disappears.
Painful as it is to say, this is the latest in a long string of recent Australian films that feels like it was made several drafts too soon. It’s too slight, too ponderous and leaves way too many questions unanswered.
Indeed, while so many poor Australian films suffer from an inability (or an unwillingness) to deliver a third act – that is, presenting a two-act story without a satisfying finale – Life Could Be A Dream is arguably more dire: a one-act film.
To wit: everything that happens in the film should have accounted for the first 30-40 minutes of a more fully developed story that presents a deeper understanding of what is going on. This would include more about the son Otis who, despite a good performance from Sonny McGee, is a threadbare character.
Equally painful – and tiring – is the weary prophecy that Life Could Be a Dream will play to a tiny public before vanishing into the stream. The film should be igniting debates and media about the scourge of domestic violence and spousal abuse, not playing to a minuscule audience.
An opportunity wasted.
THE RUN 1/2 (107 minutes) CTC
Terrible, lame attempt at a post-apocalyptic chase thriller in which a laconic low-life operator (Callan Mulvey) tries getting a teen mother and her baby to safety while being pursued by thugs. There haven’t been any births in three years so the baby is a big deal, a la Children of Men.
Sullen performances and slow pacing are bad enough, but what makes this Australian film so awful are the number of LTAMs – Lose The Audience Moments – riddled throughout.
After ambling on for about an hour basic matters of plausibility and continuity evaporate and the film loses whatever tenuous hold it has on your attention.
It’s 2026. Does an ancient film critic really need to explain that you can’t spend an hour establishing something, then completely forget about it?
Does that same fossilized reviewer also have to sound the reminder bell about the basics of continuity? There are examples here of shots that don’t match that make you want to weep into your hands. If something is wet it one shot it can’t suddenly be dry in the next.
As for pouring gasoline over somebody and it having the same effect as water…jeez Louise.
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