Judy & Punch

It is quite a gruesome story. It is a tough watch, so be psychologically prepared for disturbing content before you watch it.

A well written, scripted and acted film with a brilliant cast who make the events of the movie seem so real ! Lacks direction in some parts but overall a lot of fun and fairly enjoyable, revenge is sweet !

The movie has a vaguely historical setting, but no historical accuracy.

Some aspects seem like fantasy, but are then rooted in real history and geography.

The violence is played for laughs, but is the also meant to be poignant.

Either go full Punch and Judy, like a fantastical Falling Down, or make a gritty piece about the realities of a harsh life in the Early Modern period, but don't vacillate between the two. As released this film doesn't work as either of those things.

The debut feature from Australian actress turned writer/director Mirrah Foulkes, working from an idea by English actress Lucy Punch and her brother Tom Punch (which, given the subject matter, seems like it's a joke, but isn't), Judy & Punch is a (very) dark comedy that presents the fictional background behind the early years of the (in)famous puppet show. Essentially a study in proto-feminism, a look at #MeToo sensibilities applied to a very un-#MeToo society, it's a strange mixture of Monty Python-esque slapstick and serious social critique, taking in misogyny, domestic violence, witchcraft, social stratification, and the exploitation of old age, and wrapping it all up in a gleefully anachronistic and pseudo-magical realist aesthetic, not entirely dissimilar to what you might find in the work of Angela Carter. It's a curious mix that really shouldn't work, and, for many, it probably won't. I can see some finding the tonal balance too skewered towards socio-political protest for it to work as a comedy, whereas others will argue that the comic elements undermine the seriousness of the socio-political agenda. For me, although the film is a beat too long at 105 minutes, I thought Foulkes just about got away with the tonal balancing act - most of the humour lands and most of the political material is well-handled. She's also helped immeasurably by strong performances across the board and a stunning visual design, which is especially accomplished given that this is her first feature.

In the town of Seaside (which, the opening legend informs us, is nowhere near the sea) in the English countryside, Judy (Mia Wasikowska) and Punch (Damon Herriman) are a young couple with an infant child. A Seaside-native, Judy ran away with Punch some years ago, with the duo going on to create the Punch & Judy puppet show. Judy is by far the more talented puppeteer, but Punch is a natural showman and a master of self-promotion, and is often called the "greatest puppeteer of his generation", despite not even being the greatest puppeteer of his marriage. However, his inability to control his drinking led to the show's reputation waning, and the two have now returned to Seaside. Although Judy is happy just getting on with life, when Punch hears that a talent-scout is in the area, he determines to curb his drinking and put on the best show he possibly can. Meanwhile, women guilty of such things as having a rash, looking at the moon for too long, and being the neighbour of a man whose chickens died, are being accused of witchcraft at such a rate that Seaside has a monthly "stoning day", to the apparent horror of no one except Judy and the town's meek new constable, Derrick (Benedict Hardie), who's in love with Judy (from afar). However, when Punch responds to a horrifying accident by viciously beating Judy, she embarks upon a mission of vengeance, joined by a band of women and children who have fled the town to avoid persecution.

You know from the get-go that a movie with the title Judy & Punch isn't going to be thematically subtle, and so it goes with Foulkes's film. Apart from Derrick and Scaramouche (Terry Norris), the senile husband of Maude (Brenda Palmer), Judy and Punch's elderly maid, literally every man in the film is a violent misogynistic thug. I don't bring this up by way of criticism, merely to illustrate that the film wears its themes, very proudly, on its sleeve. The Punch & Judy show itself, which invariably involves Punch beating Judy with a stick (itself not exactly a subtle phallic stand-in), has never been especially coy about its own thematic tropes, so why should a film inverting those tropes be otherwise? And, boy, does Foulkes invert them - we get Punch failing spectacularly (and hilariously) to look after their baby, we get sausage-related comedy, we get a troublesome dog, we get a police constable, we get an executioner, we even get a crocodile, but we get everything in service of a feminist rethread of the original's misogyny. Indeed, the more familiar you are with the show and its history, including its commedia dell'arte origins, the more fun you'll have with the film.

Without giving too much away, Judy & Punch is, at least in part, another entry in a subgenre we're seeing more and more of in recent years - gynocentric revenge films directed by women; Coralie Fargeat's spectacular Venganza del más allá (2017) and Jennifer Kent's haunting The Nightingale (2018) both spring to mind, but you could also include something like Isabella Eklöf's disturbing Holiday (2018), which is a rape/revenge drama without the revenge. At one point, someone watching the show asks, "does Punch always win?", and it's precisely this kind of societal assumption which Foulkes addresses - convention at the time may have been that, yes, Punch must always win, but Foulkes suggests life is far more complicated and far less predictable.

One of Judy & Punch's most obvious strengths is the aesthetic, with its lush and vibrant milieu - a realm that's not quite fantasy, not quite historical reality. The town of Seaside, for all its vivid Renaissance-era squalor, is that of a fairy-tale allegory - the kind you'd expect to see terrorised by a werewolf or a giant. Production designer Josephine Ford has a field-day, having seemingly been turned loose to indulge herself. One half-expects to see a gingerbread house in the background. What's especially interesting, however, is that cinematographer Stefan Duscio shoots the whole thing completely realistically, setting up a fascinating aesthetic juxtaposition which adds to the magical realism immensely.

Enhancing the surreality even more is the electronic score by François Tétaz, which has no place in a film of this time-period (aside from Tétaz's score, the soundtrack also features a rocking electronic adaptation of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on a G String" and even Leonard Cohen's "Who by Fire"). Despite how out of place this should be, it works wonderfully with the stylistic trappings of Foulkes's weird anachronistic vibe. Equally important here is the dialogue, which is a mixture of period-correct diction and a more modern inflection (one character even quotes one of the best-known speeches from Gladiador (2000), earning the biggest laugh at the screening I attended). Put it this way - at one point, we see a group of characters in Renaissance costumes doing tai chi. If that sounds like something you'd find funny, you'll love this exceptionally-realised world.

I'd be remiss here if I didn't briefly mention the acting, which is universally terrific. All the supporting players do fine jobs - Norris's Scaramouche is all politeness and confusion, whilst Palmer's Maude is all loyalty and kindness. But what comes across most is their deep love - they're the kind of elderly couple that still hold hands on a walk even though they've been married for decades. Really sweet stuff. Hardie is equally good as the one good man in a town of troublemakers. But unlike the characters played by Clint Eastwood, Derrick has zero authority and no respect. However, despite his ineffectual nature, Hardie plays him as a completely straight-shooter, true, and honest, and it's a testament to his portrayal that Derrick is more than just the punchline of a few gags. He has real interiority. Obviously, Wasikowska has the meatiest role, and her performance is similar to some of her previous work, but nevertheless, her Judy isn't just a vehicle for feminist rhetoric, she's a capable and fierce woman in her own right. For me, however, Herriman steals the show. Initially, he makes Punch seem contemptible, yet somehow, as the film goes on, he makes the character even less likeable. His work in the penultimate scene is especially strong, where he has to play the part so as to communicate one thing to the other characters and something else entirely to the audience. Superb stuff.

The film does, however, have some problems. As mentioned, for some it will be too funny to work as feminist critique, and for others, too serious to work as comedy. Others still might argue it works as neither because it never fully commits to either. Without a doubt, Foulkes walks a very fine line trying to maintain such a delicate balance. I think she pulls it off, but others won't, that's just the nature of tonally ambiguous films such as this. The narrative and dialogue are also extraordinarily on the nose on occasion. As I said above, I didn't mind this, but some people will have a problem with how direct are lines such as, "what is a witch but a person who exists outside your blinkered view of society?" A few of the themes are also under-explored, including domestic violence, which seems to have been included as a plot point simply because it's an issue in the original show - Foulkes never really takes it anywhere.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Judy & Punch. A statement on oppression and female (re)assertion, it takes the best-known elements of a world-famous puppet show, and inverts them, turning an inherently misogynistic story into a celebration of early feminism. Allegorical in both visual and narrative design, it may be pantomime-esque, but so too is it compelling enough to turn what could have been dismissed as a nasty fairy-tale into a piece of work which is thematically relevant to the milieu in which we now reside.

A black reimagining of the classic seaside children's puppet show, Judy And Punch is as deliciously dark as you can imagine, featuring an immensely enjoyable mix of hilarious black comedy and intriguing, unsettling drama throughout. Couple that with a really striking period setting that both looks pretty and plays a unique role in the story, as well as two great lead performances, and you've got a brilliantly unorthodox hit, and one of the most unashamedly entertaining dark comedies you've seen in quite a long while.

Of course, dark reimaginings of classic fairytales, children stories and such have been in fashion for a good few years now, but they almost always seem to be hijacked by dull, grim blockbuster ideas. Take a film like Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters as an example, which has a brilliantly weird premise, and seems to open up all the opportunities for a hilarious and exciting dark comedy, but is suffocated under the spectre of predictable, dumb and excessively action-oriented filmmaking.

Judy And Punch, on the other hand, is a far more measured and intelligent approach to a dark reimagining of the classic puppet show. Not only impressing throughout with its genuinely hilarious humour, the film is a thoroughly engrossing watch thanks to its intelligent and unique ideas surrounding not only the origins of the eponymous puppet show, but also the medieval world of witch hunts.

It's an unorthodox but genuinely entertaining combination that works really well right the way through, only helped more by the film's capacity for humour and to take what at times does feel like a rather dark and even unsettling tale a little lighter than you may expect, and seems to be the case in so many other films of the same ilk.

As a result, there's complex and intriguing ideas at play that go far beyond what at times eventually boils down to a rather simple revenge story, and it really makes a vibrant world out of the setting created for the origins of Punch & Judy, furthered yet more by the excellent costume and production design and cinematography that make such a vivid portrayal out of this isolated medieval town, all brought together in brilliant style by director Mirrah Foulkes.

And finally, on top of all of that, you've got a pair of great lead performances from Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman as Judy and Punch themselves. Finding a fantastic balance between pure, crazed comedy and heavy, dark drama (something that is absolutely no mean feat), the pair are great to watch from beginning to end, and although they find their characters dealing with very different obstacles throughout, they're an excellent double act that play off one another with just as much humour and domestic unhappiness as the famous puppets themselves.

Overall, then, I had a great time with Judy And Punch. An unexpected surprise that takes an unorthodox angle on a well-known property, the film is full of both fantastically funny humour and exciting dark drama, brought together brilliantly by director Mirrah Foulkes with interesting and intelligent ideas that bring its story and setting to life in vibrant fashion.