Jane Campion's first feature is an accomplished and offbeat movie about a dysfunctional family. Like, a really dysfunctional family. Like, after this movie was over I thought back on it and was disturbed by how dysfunctional this family was. There's a brief scene that implies father/daughter incest that is never referred to again by the movie or any of the characters in it, and that one short scene colored my entire reading of everything else going on.
The thing is, it's easy to overlook how disturbed we should be while watching the movie because so much of it is so funny, like a more humorously perverse version of a Mike Leigh film. There are times when the antics of Sweetie, the impetuous and childish daughter who serves as a sort of sun around which all the other members of this dysfunctional family orbit, seem silly and charming and kooky. But then there are other moments when they seem just sad at best, and downright insane at worst. And then there's that ending, that incredibly disturbing ending that pulls the rug right out from under us and leaves us shaken.
Grade: A.
The thing is, it's easy to overlook how disturbed we should be while watching the movie because so much of it is so funny, like a more humorously perverse version of a Mike Leigh film. There are times when the antics of Sweetie, the impetuous and childish daughter who serves as a sort of sun around which all the other members of this dysfunctional family orbit, seem silly and charming and kooky. But then there are other moments when they seem just sad at best, and downright insane at worst. And then there's that ending, that incredibly disturbing ending that pulls the rug right out from under us and leaves us shaken.
Grade: A.