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Eye Of The Storm

Australia 2011
Directed by
Fred Schepisi
104 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Sharon Hurst
3.5 stars

The Eye Of The Storm

Synopsis: It is the 1970s and wealthy, acid-tongued matriarch Elizabeth Hunter (Charlotte Rampling) is dying at her Sydney home. Her children, Sir Basil (Geoffrey Rush) and Dorothy (Judy Davis), come to her bedside, possibly make peace with a mother they feel never loved them, and perhaps to ensure that her will is written in their favour. As two nurses, a family lawyer and her  children attend Elizabeth, the dying woman is caught between the present and a long-gone incident which has defined her relationship with her daughter.

Based upon the ninth novel by Australian Nobel Prize-winning writer, Patrick White, and director Fred Schepisi's first Australian film since Evil Angels in 1988, Eye Of The Storm is a difficult but absorbing film, marked by superlative acting from the three leads. No need to elaborate upon the wonderful roles Geoffrey Rush has inhabited. Here he gives us Sir Basil, an actor based in London, a man who, although well beyond his middle years still lies to Mummy, perhaps fearful of her disapproval. We first meet him surrounded by sycophantic admirers and he smacks of imperiousness and pretension. It is only later in the film that we discover the still insecure boy within, a quality Rush realizes to perfection.

It is a joy to see the ever-talented Judy Davis back in a front and centre role. Her character is another sad and sorry victim of the vicious Hunter family dynamics, a woman who had been married to some petty European prince, but is now impecunious, yet desperately trying to hang on to vestiges of her dignity and position. Some wonderfully biting and blackly funny dialogue takes place between Dorothy and her mother, and at times the level of discomfort between them is palpably disturbing. Something has happened in the past – something Dorothy can never forgive her mother for. The scenes alluding to this are powerful and appalling. Davis carries her character with a composure which barely masks an ever-present fragility and nervousness, manifested in annoying physical tics. Both brother and sister, despite their airs of sophistication and desperate to inherit her wealth, revert to the long-held roles they have played in the family dominated by Mummy.

The linchpin of the trio is the amazingly versatile Rampling who has appeared in British, American and French films for over 40 years. I find myself absolutely hating the seemingly careless mother she portrays. Yet the skill of Rampling’s performance is to still allow us a shred of compassion for this selfish, domineering and viper-like figure, especially as we share her dying journey, with its flashes back to the fateful day when she found herself in the eye of a tropical storm.

Other cast members tackle their smaller roles with aplomb. Two nurses, Mary (Alexandra Schepisi) and Flora (Maria Theodorakis), attend Elizabeth, but is it Flora who catches Basil’s lascivious eye. Lotte, (Helen Morse), a Holocaust survivor, is the family’s long-time housekeeper who is ordered to dance for the dying woman. Arnold Wyburd (John Gaden) is the Hunter’s family lawyer, a man of integrity who has carried a flame for Elizabeth for years.

Visually the film is quite beautiful with its lush 1970s interiors and sweeping landscape scenes that really evoke the feel of Australia, and is well added to by a moody score by Paul Grabowsky. A story about the kind of family dynamics that scar for life, Eye Of The Storm with its under-the-surface savagery may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is powerfully presented by one of our most accomplished directors who has brought out the best in a top-notch cast.

 

 

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