Displaying items by tag: Maeve Dermody

LIFE COULD BE A DREAM

Australia, 2026, 82 minutes, Colour.

Maeve Dermody, Alexander England, Sonny McGee.

Directed by Jasmin Tarasin.

Life often is a dream. However, it can also be a nightmare.

And this is the subject of this brief Australian drama. It is strongly emphasised as the film opens, information about domestic violence. And, after we have experienced the nightmare, before the final credits, the theme is again explicitly noted and help suggested. This is indeed a message film.

The central character is Sarah. She has been married to Jake for many years, and they have a son, Otis, in his mid teens.

The film opens in the present, Sarah anxious and upset, Otis supportive, Jake absent, her birthday coming, his casual phone calls, establishing attention to the home.

There is some narrative in the present, especially with Sarah deciding to leave with Otis, her being a real estate agent going into a house that she is preparing for sale, her state of anxiety, getting energy from a great deal of swimming, hiding from Jake. Otis is supportively is mother, understanding, helping with the cooking, but finding the situation sometimes oppressive, befriending a young girl in the local store.

But, there are important flashbacks, the initial encounter between Sarah and Jake, falling in love, pregnancy, marriage, the role of Sarah’s mother, Jake and his charm. Then Jake becomes vindictive, trying to track down Sarah and Otis, spinning a story to the young girl at the local store to get information.

As different from other domestic violence stories, there is not a great deal of explicit violence. Rather, the emphasis is on the emotional and psychological violence, the continuous uncertainties, the sense of menace.

Maeve Dermody plays Sarah. Sonny McGee is a convincing Otis, a teenager, supportive, sometimes bewildered. And Alexander England is the threatening Jake.

A film to experience and discuss rather than an entertainment.

1. The title? Life possibilities, hope? But dreams as nightmares?
2. The Australian setting, homes, the mansion, interiors, the grounds, the swimming pool, the sea and the beach? The musical score?
3. The initial information about domestic violence, repeated at the end? Audience response, the initial alert, reactions throughout the film? Empathy with Sarah, with her son? Antipathy towards Jake?
4. The story in the present, Sarah, her decision to leave, talking with Jake on the phone, his being away, the delay in return, the birthday celebration? Her relationship with Otis, his age, his response to his father?
5. The emphasis on water, swimming, the pool, Sarah relying on swimming? With Otis? The cliffs with Jake? The beach with Otis?
6. The scenes at home, Sarah, anxiety, moods, dreams and memories, the continued swimming? Her work, selling homes, the decision to go to the home with Otis?
7. Settling into the home, preparing for the sale, the rooms, meals? The encounter with the gardener?
8. Sarah, the significance of the flashbacks, the cumulative effect of her relationship with Jake, the initial encounter, falling in love, her mother and wanting to meet Jake, happy with each other, his personality, treatment of Sara, the pregnancy, Otis noting the time of the wedding at his birth?
9. Otis, supportive of his mother, cooking, helping her, the swimming play, but wanting his friends?
10. Going to the store, the young girl, discussion about school, the various meetings, Otis going out with her, swimming pool, their hands on the bottom of the pool, their legs out, like Otis with his mother?
11. Jake, his return, the phone calls, anger, the visuals on the phone, tormenting Sara? His coming to the town, visiting the girl in the shop, his story about being in uncle, her suspicions of him?
12. The future, for Sara, getting help, a new life, Otis, relationship with his father, with his mother?
13. And the final information again about domestic violence?

2: 22 

Australia/US, 2017, 98 minutes, Colour.

Michiel Huisman, Teresa Palmer, Sam Reid, John Waters, Kerry Armstrong, Maeve Dermody.

Directed by Paul Currie.

While the film is billed as an American science-fiction drama, it is actually an Australian production, filmed in Sydney, most of the cast being Australia. The main exception is the leading man, media house, American.

The film was not successful on its release, billed as the film with the least box office 2017. However, it has had a firmer further life on television and streaming.

Michelle Houston plays an air traffic controller with some kind of psychic powers. However, in cycling through New York City, he has a lot of repetitious, déjà vu sites and experiences, especially at Grant Central Station, and everything, an ageing at the time of 2:22.

He has to give up his traffic controlling work when there is almost an accident – and the encounters a heart dealer, Teresa Palmer, who was on the plane. She also has a boyfriend, an artist, played by Sam Reid, who deals in holograms.

So, while there are the romantic complications in the present as well is the mystery of 222 and the characters and sites that are seen, it then becomes a link to a death 30 years earlier, the day that the two central characters were born, and some kind of dramatic psychic connection between those events and the present.

Which means that the audience does have to pay attention to sort out the various threads of the plot. The film looks quite good, the two central characters sympathetic. A science fiction/fantasy pastime.

1. Silence-fiction? Science fantasy?
2. The Australian production, filming in the US and Australia? American style, Australian supporting cast? The recreation of New York City, apartments, Grand Central station, Kennedy airport and flight control? The musical score?
3. The title, the time, Dylan and his experiences, his interest in stars, constellations? His background, family, training, fear of flying, flight control? His friendships? His hallucinations? Saving the planes from colliding? Being suspended?
4. His life, his apartment, his interests, the encounter with Sarah, his ticket to the aerial ballet, talks with Sarah, the audience having seen her on the plane about to crash? Her life and work, the art gallery, Jonas and his work? Dylan going to the exhibition, the holograms, the characters and situations of his 2:22 situation, his mad outburst and destructive?
5. Travelling in New York City, the camps, the recurring situations, same people, talk, the businessmen, the children, the pregnant woman, 2.22, the electrical fault?
6. The bond with Sarah, the sharing the same birthdate? Dylan and the information about the past, the events it Grand Central, Jake and Evelyn? 30 years earlier, the stars and constellations?
7. Dylan, realising that he and Sarah had to relive the 30 years events of the past, Evelyn as the dead woman, his going to see Catherine her sister, the discussions, Catherine sceptical?
8. Jonas, wanting to go away with Sarah, Dylan and his finding that Jake, the alleged murderer, lived in the apartment, the search, the discovery of the letters, reading the stories? Confiding in Sarah? Her hesitation?
9. The buildup to the climax, the repetition at Grand Central, Jonas, his reliving the murderer, Jake and Evelyn victims, Jonas shooting at Sarah, Dylan intervening and shot, recovering? Jonas shot by the police?
10. The aftermath, happiness, stillness pilot, Sarah and the baby?