pathways, June 09
book
Larrikin Angel: A Biography of Veronica Brady, a person of genuine significance, whose story has not been told previously
films
Two Lovers (out now) its measured, reserved and realistic approach makes the drama all the more impressive
The Proposal (June 18) entertaining and very watchable
Disgraced (June 25) a complicated, focused and intense film that is totally absorbing
Larrikin Angel: A Biography of Veronica Brady
by Kath Jordan
Round House Press, 294pp, $32.95
reviewed by Roy Williams, author of God, Actually, for The Australian
Too many Australian biographies nowadays are published prematurely.
In some cases, the still-living subject has lived a life of such banal inconsequence as scarcely to merit a magazine puff piece, let alone a book. In others, the subject is already so famous and their life so over-analysed that there is little of value or originality left to say.
It is quite rare to discover a new biography about a person of genuinesignificance, whose story has not been told previously.
Kath Jordan's Larrikin Angel belongs in this last category. Her subject, 80-year-old "muscular Christian" nun Veronica Brady, is not widely known outside her adopted home state of Western Australia. Yet she has been lauded by prominent people on both sides of Australian politics as "one of our national treasures" (former Liberal senator Fred Chaney) and as a "magnificent human being" (left-wing Labor veteran Tom Uren) ...
As a 21-year-old woman in 1950, Brady considered her choice to be between marriage and the convent; she chose the latter because "she felt the call to follow a vocation in which she moved inwards rather than outwards"… she defends celibacy as liberating for her, and as "an obligation to love universally, non-possessively and spiritually rather than physically". On the evidence of Jordan's fine book, Brady has kept that vow, and Australia is a better place for it.
Two Lovers
starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw and Isabella Rossellini
directed by James Gray
rated M (coarse language and sex scenes). 110 mins
Roadshow: out now
reviewed by Jim Murphy
Any film that begins with the central character attempting suicide is a fair bet to be a bit on the melodramatic side, but director James Gray studiously skirts the obvious in this offbeat romantic drama about thirtysomethings, set with palpable atmosphere in the Brighton Beach district of Brooklyn in the late 1990s.
Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) is the man rescued from drowning. In some family match-making, Leonard and Sandra Cohen (Vinessa Shaw) hit it off nicely but along comes Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is skating on thin emotional ice herself. Sandra, who is stable and genuinely wants to look after Leonard, would be much better for him, but Michelle casts a powerful spell. Which way will he turn?
The screenplay by director Gray and Ric Menellos carefully examines the fragility of the human condition when Cupid fires his darts. The story and the characters are not exaggerated, and neither is it a particularly moving film in the sense of bringing a lump to the throat or a tear to the eye. Rather, Gray adopts a measured, reserved and realistic approach, and the drama is all the more impressive for it.
Isabella Rossellini, for example, plays against the way Jewish mothers are generally portrayed on the screen. She uses her wonderful stillness to underscore in masterly fashion the mother's aching understanding of and sympathy for her son.
The acting throughout is excellent, helped by a script in which small talk is rendered with effortless ease and realism.
JIM MURPHY is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
The Proposal
starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Malin Akerman, Mary Steenburgen, Oscar Nunez, and Craig T. Nelson
directed by Anne Fletcher
rated PG (mild coarse language and sexual references). 107 mins
Walt Disney Pictures: out June 18
reviewed by Peter Sheehan
In this entertaining and comic film, Sandra Bullock plays Margaret Tate, the Editor-in-chief of a book-publishing company who runs an almost impossibly difficult work environment. Her visa is running out. To avoid a deportation order to Canada, she proposes to marry her unsuspecting assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds).
Andrew accepts the proposal to protect his position but also because he has eventual ambitions to be editor in Margaret's place. With the Immigration Department suspicious, Andrew sets his own conditions on the union and both of them find themselves spending a weekend together with his family in Alaska to try to make their togetherness look legitimate.
This is classical romantic comedy, and a typical theme for such plots is that when two people start to spend time together, they also start to fall in love, with perfectly predictable results. However, the film offers more than that.
Margaret, as the determined professional, who has terrorized those in her office for years, has been ambitious, domineering and selfish, and now she has to shed these attributes in order to cope with Andrew's family, which provides its own attractive brand of humanity.
This film has Bullock returning to comedy after some time, and she and Reynolds work very well together with an under-stated chemistry. Together, they create some funny situations, with the help of a whole host of warm family characters around them.
Anne Fletcher directs the movie with style and consciousness of where good moments lie. As with most movies of its kind, it goes sentimental towards the end, and the rolling credits seem to be scripted oddly by someone who hasn't entirely understood the movie that went before. But the film is a smooth, well-paced comedy that works well with some sharp, witty dialogue thrown in to help. It is not a deep move but it is entertaining and very watchable nevertheless.
PETER SHEEHAN is associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
Disgrace
starring John Malkovich, Jessica Haines, Eriq Ebouaney, and Antoinette Engel
directed by Steve Jacobs
rated M (violence, sex scenes, mature scenes, and coarse language). 118 mins
Icon Entertainment Films: out June 25
reviewed by Peter Sheehan
This is the film adaptation of the 1999 Booker Prize winning novel of the same name by J. M. Coetzee who won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. The film of the novel won the International Critics' Award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008.
The film closely follows the book and tells the story of David Lurie, a Professor in Communications at a University in post-Apartheid South Africa. He takes sexual advantage of one of his young students (Antoinette Engel) and he is disgraced. His defiance about his behaviour is absolute, and totally without regret. He goes to the farm of his daughter Lucy (Jessica Haines) in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. She is raped and Lurie is brutally assaulted. They are both physically and emotionally broken by the assault.
Lurie is a racist as well as a predator. The film is as much about the break-down of a flawed human being and the challenges of seeking forgiveness and finding redemption, as it is about a culture or a society undergoing change.
John Malkovich is an unusual actor, and he has the capacity to combine quirkiness and deep seriousness. Here, the role is perfect for him, and he gives an outstanding portrayal of the narcissistic and pleasure-seeking Lurie. Newcomer, Jessica Haines is excellent as Lucy. There are very strong performances by others, including Eriq Ebouaney as Petrus.
This is a complicated movie, based on a tough book, and it is a focused and intense film that is totally absorbing. It gains considerable power through the way it handles national and personal conflicts involving class, race, identity, and sex, with more than a moderate dose of animal cruelty thrown into the mix.
The South African locations are captured wonderfully by cinematographer, Steve Arnold, and the direction by Steve Jacobs is sensitive and faithful to Coetzee's intent.
The strong performances by Malkovich and Haines, aided by the intelligent direction of Steve Jacobs, help substantially (though not completely) to bring the threads together. The novel had subtle layers weaving through its story-line, and the film has them too.
The film as a whole is a powerful tribute to national disgrace, and its thought-provoking wisdom helps mitigate the impact of a bleak underlying despair that has cultural, as well as profoundly personal and human implications for us all.
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