Margaret Fink Movies
A free-spirited art student and a roguish poet find their addiction to each other taking a back seat to their taste for heroin in director Neil Armfield's intensely personal tale of recreational drug use gone bad. When Candy (Abbie Cornish) and Dan (Heath Ledger) first fell in love, they both thought they had found all they ever needed in life. Despite financial hardships, the pair sustained themselves on the vibrant life force that burned blindingly bright as it promised an invincible future. Their intoxicating romance a blissful altered state of which heroin played only a minor role in the beginning, Candy and Dan soon decide to strengthen their bond by marrying and starting a family. Their manufactured Eden gradually becomes an uncontrollable inferno, however, as Candy's parents slowly pull away due to the pain of witnessing their daughter's slow slide into oblivion, and even chemistry professor Casper (Geoffrey Rush), who was at first complicit in their experimentation, admits that Candy and Dan's blind devotion to the drug is now forever ingrained into their commitment to one and other. As the marriage deteriorates right along with Candy's increasingly fragile mental state, Dan must make the difficult decision to either rescue her or pull away in hopes that the clarity of separation will finally empower her to break free of the addiction that binds her. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, (more)
- 1986
Christina Stead's novel For Love Alone was a best-seller in Australia, but remains essentially unknown to the outside world. The same can be said for this 1986 film version, likewise a homegrown Australian product. Set in the 1930s, the film stars Helen Buhay as a starry-eyed young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of society in general and her father in particular. She kicks over the traces to enter into a romance with college Latin professor Hugo Weaving. Still not realizing that Weaving considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, Helen nearly misses out on a chance for happiness with liberal-minded banker Sam Neill. Once she's settled down with Neill, the idealistic Buhay is smitten by another aesthete, poet Huw Williams. Neill encourages this affair, hoping that Buhay will eventually realize that there's more to true love than mere sexual impulsiveness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Buday, Sam Neill, (more)
Both actress Judy Davis and director Gillian Armstrong made a big splash on the international scene with this charming Australian film that examines late 19th century Australian society from the perspective of a headstrong woman who refuses to follow convention. The film charts the developing self-awareness of Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) as she grows from an insecure tomboy to a self-assured woman. Sybylla wants to be a writer and stuns her family and friends by her insistence on following her dream. Despite the objections of her family acquaintances, she rejects the marriage proposal from the rich Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) to continue going her own way, in spite of the odds stacked against her in a repressive Victorian environment. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Davis, Sam Neill, (more)
- 1975
In this adaptation of an Australian play, a police officer swears that never in 23 years on the force has he had to use his gun. A rookie is assigned to him, and soon they are both bored to death with watching television and working crosswords. They get a little excitement when a woman and her sister come into to complain that her husband has been beating her. The woman desperately wants to leave him, but cannot because he will not allow her to have the furniture. This inspires the lead cop to go to the apartment and tie up the abuser while the woman takes the furniture. They then proceed to beat the stuffing out of the man until he is near death. To ensure that he keeps silent about the beating, the cops agree to take the man out for a few drinks. During their night, battered wife beater keels over and dies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Hargreaves, Peter Cummins, (more)
