Some movies play around with the narrative, hide-and-seek style, as if they don't want to tell the audience what the movie is about. Not "Blue Jean". It starts with the simple daily routine of the protagonist Jean (Rosy McEwen), a PE schoolteacher. Beginning a class of netball, she asks a bunch of students if they know what "fight or flight" means. "Instincts", she explains to the bewildered students. In a way, this movie is about instincts, to hide and survive. It's about lesbians in the era when Margaret Thatcher was promoting hostile legislation against homosexuals. The focal point of "Blue Jean" can be crystalized in a frustrated exclamation uttered by Jean "am I to parade my sexuality around like a badge of honour"? Her lover Viv (Kerrie Hayes), with a revealing tattooed, head-shaved punk look, has absolutely no reservations. Unfortunately for Jean, there is the attractive school-teaching job to worry about. Sadly, while there is no question that these too deeply love each other, this ultimate difference in attitude becomes a formidable wall between them.
At the domestic front, while she seems to get along with her elder sister's family (couple and one small son), there are undercurrents. It is rather sad that from her own sister, she does not get the genuine support her needs so much.
Through a series of simply narrated events, Jean's inner blue world is attentively sculptured like a piece of fine art: her hopes and fears and, above all, her agonies.
The catalyst is a new 15-years-old student, Lois (Lucy Halliday). It would be unusual if a newcomer is not treated as an outsider, at least initially. But then, Lois is also lesbian, which does not take long for her classmates to sense. Even easier for Jean. But then Jean does not even need to sense it because she runs into Lois in a gay bar. They ignore each other, to the extent they can. Later, an incident in school involving Lois and another student triggers a critical point where Jean has to face the difficult challenge of how to handle her own sexuality.
Throughout the movie, the sadness we feel for Jean deepens. And yet, we are also inspired by her unyielding tenacity to be true to her profession, her students, her lover, her family and, ultimately, to herself. Her only fault is in being born to an unforgivingly closed-minded era.
Rosy McEwen's performance is superb.
At the domestic front, while she seems to get along with her elder sister's family (couple and one small son), there are undercurrents. It is rather sad that from her own sister, she does not get the genuine support her needs so much.
Through a series of simply narrated events, Jean's inner blue world is attentively sculptured like a piece of fine art: her hopes and fears and, above all, her agonies.
The catalyst is a new 15-years-old student, Lois (Lucy Halliday). It would be unusual if a newcomer is not treated as an outsider, at least initially. But then, Lois is also lesbian, which does not take long for her classmates to sense. Even easier for Jean. But then Jean does not even need to sense it because she runs into Lois in a gay bar. They ignore each other, to the extent they can. Later, an incident in school involving Lois and another student triggers a critical point where Jean has to face the difficult challenge of how to handle her own sexuality.
Throughout the movie, the sadness we feel for Jean deepens. And yet, we are also inspired by her unyielding tenacity to be true to her profession, her students, her lover, her family and, ultimately, to herself. Her only fault is in being born to an unforgivingly closed-minded era.
Rosy McEwen's performance is superb.