Visitors

Synopsis: Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) is adetermined and highly-capable young woman who decides to fulfil her dream of sailing solo around the world. Near the end of her anticipated 140 day journey her yacht becomes becalmed in the middle of the Indian Ocean. With only radio contact to her fiancé Luke (Dominic Purcell) and her cat Taco for company, she becomes increasingly isolated and disturbed. Coupled with extreme sleep deprivation, Georgia’s mental state deteriorates until she is hallucinating a variety of visitors to her yacht – or are they hallucinations? Perhaps the ghosts of a traumatised past are coming to destroy her sanity,

Real-life solo yachtsmen like Kay Cottee report similar hallucinations and distortions of perception as occur in Visitors. This is of course a difficult thing to convey in a film. Interior monologue creates boredom. Director Franklin uses the device of the cat Taco as a conversational foil for Georgia: Taco speaks (well, a voice-over actually) and Georgia answers out loud. The cat functions somewhat like Georgia’s inner critic, advising her, warning her and keeping her (relatively) sane.

The film is made more visually-interesting by flashbacks. We see Georgia’s farewell party, and scenes of her earlier relating with Luke, her mother and her father. We gradually learn via flashback of a childhood incident which dramatically changed the course of her parents’ lives and influenced her current choices. Georgia’s mother Carolyn (Susannah York) is revealed as a highly toxic influence in Georgia’s life, becoming more so as a dangerous ‘visitor’ to the becalmed yacht and forcing Georgia to reassess the truth of their past relationship. York, a fine actress from many classic 60s films, is more believable as the living mother than the monstrous ghost of Georgia’s imagination, although here it is the melodramatic scripting that could be to blame. Ray Barrett plays Georgia’s father Bill in his typically paternal Aussie fashion, while Dominic Purcell cuts a very believable figure as the fiancé full of rivalry due to his own failed round-the-world solo attempt. Tottie Goldsmith gives a surprisingly strong performance as Casey Monné, head of the cosmetics company which sponsors Georgia’s attempt.

A major strength of Richard Franklin's film is Radha Mitchell’s performance which successfully portrays the fear, anxiety and courage of her character. Another strength is the re-creation of life within the confined spaces of a yacht, all simulated on a specially constructed set. The fog-bound isolation and the creaking of the deck gives us an endless creepy sense of the menace to come. When especially nasty pirates attempt to board the yacht, and Mother starts making regular surprise visits with electrified looking hair and razor blades, the film starts to take a overly melodramatic turn and begins to lose credibility and the too-neat ending just adds to the silliness.

Ultimately Visitors founders, falling short of realizing its commendable idea, by tossing out believability overboard.

 

 

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