Feeling Sexy

Pleasant little piece (50 minutes) about an artist in the Brisbane of the early 1970s trapped by domesticity and her doctor husband's lack of passion who, after a brief affair with an art student, gets to express her own passion through her work.

The director Davida Allen, an established artist but first time director, is strong on visuals and makes good use of close-ups, but also tells the story economically with deft use of cutting. It's a fairly ordinary tale, but told with humour and understanding. Susie Porter as Vickie the artist projects just the right kind of freckled, buxom sensuality for the part and Tamblyn Lord as the husband is suitably buttoned-up, though not unappealing. Some of the best moments are in Vickie's dreams, especially when she fantasises about the hunky tattooed man she sees at the local swimming pool who she imagines decorating and making love to in various wild ways.

The behaviour of someone in Vickie's situation is often portrayed as aberrant or ridiculous, but here she is a normal person with a healthy libido and creative imagination being ground down by babies, nappies, housework and a preoccupied husband. Many in her situation would just walk out, but she sticks with it and is able to feed her creativity back into her ordinary life. A pleasant change of story from the average family court file, but not unheard of, and nicely told here.

This fresh and deliciously funny comedy from award-winning painter, Davida Allen, shows once and for all that small is beautiful. The strength of this little charmer is that it doesn't rely on any of the film conventions that we have come to expect from much of the Hollywood fare that hits our shores. Its only 50 minutes long, but, as many of the Oz critics are commenting, it packs more into its short running time than many a film twice its length. Set in Brisbane, Australia, in the 1970's the story concerns Vicki (played by Susie Porter), a vivacious freckle-faced red-head who falls in love with Greg (Tamblyn Lord), a medical student. They get married, have two kids and Vicki soon finds that married life isn't exactly what she expected. After having an affair with Hugo she quickly works out that adultery isn't going to solve anything. The rest of the movie spends its time dealing with how Vicki can have her cake and eat it too. Without giving too much away, the answer is found in Vicki's fertile imagination. Funny, erotic and beautifully performed by Susie Porter, this film deserves all the accolades it can get. Highly recommended.

A beautiful, colourful, sexual and wonderful retort to the stereotypes of stay-at-home mothers that dominant our screens. Davida Allen & Co have produced a film that sings to an audience of urbanites suffering under the mantle of mediocrity. At only 50 minutes in length the film resolves perfectly without the audience having to trawl through hours of middle-class navel-gazing.

...but if you're not married then this maybe isn't for you because you won't understand why someone has to cheat on their partner to find out it's better to "fanticise" all day about it and wait until they get home so you can have sex with your partner and dream about your "fantasy".

But, hey, if you're married and having problems, this may just help. Though I doubt it.

Looking for a good Oz flick, go and see Two Hands.