Wendy de Waal Movies
- 2010
A family struggling with the loss of a loved one may have found him in a rather unusual place in this drama from writer and director Julie Bertuccelli. Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a stay-at-home mother to her four children -- Tim (Christian Byers), Lou (Tom Russell), Simone (Morgana Davies), and Charlie (Gabriel Gotting) -- and a loving wife to her husband, Peter (Aden Young). Peter is out of town on business when he suffers a fatal heart attack; Dawn is emotionally shattered by the news, and isn't sure at first how to get by on her own. The children are supportive to their mom, Tim gets a part-time job to help bring in some extra cash, and Dawn begins working at a plumbing supply store run by kind-hearted George (Marton Csokas), but while they're all trying to move on, they still wish they could have Peter back in their lives. Simone, who is eight, has taken to climbing the big tree in front of the family's house, and she soon explains why to Dawn -- she says she can hear the voice of her father rustling through the leaves. Before long, Simone builds a tree house and spends most of her time listening to her father's phantom voice, and while Dawn understands how she feels, she's not sure how to get her daughter to let go of her father's ghost, especially when Simone reacts poorly to the news that Dawn and George are dating. The Tree was adapted from the novel Our Father Who Art in the Tree by Judy Pascoe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marton Csokas, (more)
A narcissistic psychopath and neglectful single mother concocts a deadly scheme to sell the family house, and the only thing standing in the way is her still-breathing father in a cynical and serious-minded suburban soap-opera from director Paul Goldman and first-time screenwriter Alice Bell. Kat (Emily Barclay) is a nineteen-year-old single mother whose life revolves around manicures, cell phone conversations, petty crime, and cheap sex. She lives in a typical suburban home in a typical small town, and she has long since grown bored with her vanilla-flavored surroundings. Kat's brother Danny (Laurence Breuls) is currently serving a life sentence for murder, and the dangerously unpredictable hellion is now forced to move in with her father John (Robert Morgan) or face a life of destitution. Despite the fact that she is utterly dependent on her dad, her hatred for him reaches a breaking point when he informs her that he will sever her financial support and turn her child over to social services unless she finds a job. Subsequently unloading her toddler on her latest boyfriend Rusty (Michael Dorman) before embarking on a sex-fueled bender with Danny's decidedly slow-witted friend Kenny (Anthony Hayes), the enraged Kat soon cooks up a scheme to manipulate one of the men in her life to murder her father so she can sell his home, collect the cash, and carry on in her wild ways. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emily Barclay, Steve Bastoni, (more)
Australian filmmaker Paul Goldman directs the comedy The Night We Called It a Day, based on the actual events during Frank Sinatra's 1974 tour stop in Sydney. Joel Edgerton plays Rod Blue, a long-haired rock promoter in Australia during the '70s. He hopes to save his floundering career by spending all his money booking Frank Sinatra (Dennis Hopper). But when Sinatra arrives with his girlfriend Barbara Marx (Melanie Griffith), he insults the locals by calling reporter Hilary Hunter (Portia de Rossi) "a two-dollar whore." Union leader and future Australian prime minister Bob Hawke (David Field) tries to cancel the tour unless he apologizes, and it's up to Rod and his assistant Audrey (Rose Byrne) to step in and save the tour. Tom Burlinson performs Sinatra's vocal parts. The Night We Called It a Day was shown at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dennis Hopper, Melanie Griffith, (more)
The life of legendary scientist Albert Einstein is re-imagined as a slapstick farce in this comic fantasy. Changing Einstein's country of origin from Germany to Tasmania, the film shows the scientist's eventful youth as he creates rock & roll and discovers the secret of splitting the beer atom. Director and star Yahoo Serious loads the film with slapstick comedy, absurd sight gags, and even sneaks in a romantic subplot in which Einstein courts Marie Curie. The film was a huge hit in its native Australia but a major box-office disappointment in the United States, where audiences largely ignored the display of nonstop silliness. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yahoo Serious, Odile Le Clezio, (more)
