User reviews

This Australian film directed by actress Robyn Nevin is likeable, even if the material is small-scale. Nevin in her directing debut uses a lot of close-ups, and though she tends to lean too much on the score of composer Peter Best (he of the one-finger piano playing) in dramatic moments, there is much to admire here.

The screenplay by Moya Wood centers on a family who reside on a farm 2 hours drive from Melbourne, with publisher Connie (Judy Morris) earning the income and travelling to and fro everyday, and her husband Alex (Barry Otto) renovating an abandoned house. Connie hires the pregnant Geraldine (Victoria Longley) as a nanny for their 4 year old son, Nicholas (Owen Johnson), though Geraldine being pregnant and having little experience makes her employment seem dubious.

It's disappointing when Connie's jealousy of Geraldine is dropped in favor of Connie's questioning of Alex's competency and commitment, particularly as Otto supplies Alex with an odd sexual ambiguity. When Geraldine's fiancee, Barry (Lewis Fitz-gerald) turns up, the focus also shifts to them from Connie and Alex, which is also a pity since they are the decidedly less interesting couple, also due to the fact of Morris being more charismatic than Longley. However, we are thankfully spared Geraldine's labor, and the treatment ends with a nice and poetic ambiguity.