Soft Fruit

This films captures the all-encompassing breadth of family life from love to brutality, and displays it in a no-punches way that touches the heart strings. As the four children return to share their dying mother's last weeks we see the old family conflicts, rivalries and tensions flare, as each struggles to gain a special relationship with their dying mother, played whimsically by Jeanie Drynan. The bad language may upset some prudes, but is all in the spirit of the movie. Russell Dykstra's winning perfomance as ex-con biker son Bo is one of the best I've seen for years. Sacher Horler is proving to be a major Australian talent. How nice to see a selection of females that aren't wafer thin!!

I saw Soft Fruit today and am still thrilled. The performances from the cast are wonderful, Jeanie Drynan in particular. The casting is amazing - these people actually ARE a family. Its touchingly sad and yet very very funny. One of the best Aussie films, in years. These people don't parade their Australianness like so many other local films do. Great script, great cast! Beats the pants off any thing else around!

The performances are fabulous, but what really makes this movie special is the care which has been taken to build a symphony of metaphor in the relationships in this family. Clearly done from a woman's point of view (the men can't cope, and all that's needed is for the father to reunite with the son), this piece still goes beyond the usual chick-flick tear-jerker to keep you involved with fascinating metaphors and unlikely characters which nonetheless tell the truth. I am appalled that it has yet to receive distribution.

"Soft Fruit" is a bittersweet Aussie flick about a terminally ill mother who summons her adult children to her bedside for her final days. Anything but a downer, this cross-genre flick shows us humor, poignancy, and quirkiness as we watch a barely functional and functional barely family deal with the passing of its matriarch. An enjoyable film, a critics darling, and a winner of some fringe awards, "Soft Fruit" is a worthwhile watch for those into flicks about working class Aussies.

There is a moment in the film between Russell Dykstras character and the father, Russell Dykstra strips naked, and then his father does the same to get him in the car, and they kind of stare at each other for about 3 seconds, and for that moment in the film, something magical happens, but it was a real connected moment between them and I think it made the film what it is. Just that moment.

There is a moment in the film between Russell Dykstras character and the father, Russell Dykstra strips naked, and then his father does the same to get him in the car, and they kind of stare at each other for about 3 seconds, and for that moment in the film, something magical happens, but it was a real connected moment between them and I think it made the film what it is. Just that moment.