Bliss

This adaptation of the Peter Carey novel of the same name took out the 1985 AFI Best Picture award and made it to Cannes where the audience walked out on it. Lawrence then cut 23 minutes out of the 135 minute print (there is also a director's cut available with a runtime of 127 mins) but what is left is still a long-winded ramble despite still being generally highly rated by Australian critics.

After suffering a near-death experience, an advertising executive Harry Joy (Barry Otto) awakens to find that his formerly unremarkable life has turned into a nightmare. He learns that his wife is cheating on him, his son has become a drug dealer, and his daughter is a junkie and his latest client is environmentally unconscionable.

Lawrence is a skilled director with an impressive flair for visual composition, particularly when it comes to the landscape (the early scene of Harry's fog-enshrouded mother standing in a dinghy holding a cross has become iconic in Australian cinema) but he has trouble evoking the surrealistic aspects of Carey's novel. Most damagingly, the script, co-authored by the director and Carey, meanders to such an extent that eventually it becomes difficult to recall what the story is about, let alone care. Film demands a greater economy than the printed text and Bliss suffers from sticking too close to its literary origins.

Barry Otto gives the best performance of his career as Harry Joy, Jeff Truman is memorable as his indefatigably dorky business associate, Joel, and Paul Chubb has a small but amusing moment as Reverend Des.

 

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