Pleasant little piece (50 minutes) about an artist in the Brisbane of the early 1970s trapped by domesticity and her doctor husband's lack of passion who, after a brief affair with an art student, gets to express her own passion through her work.
The director Davida Allen, an established artist but first time director, is strong on visuals and makes good use of close-ups, but also tells the story economically with deft use of cutting. It's a fairly ordinary tale, but told with humour and understanding. Susie Porter as Vickie the artist projects just the right kind of freckled, buxom sensuality for the part and Tamblyn Lord as the husband is suitably buttoned-up, though not unappealing. Some of the best moments are in Vickie's dreams, especially when she fantasises about the hunky tattooed man she sees at the local swimming pool who she imagines decorating and making love to in various wild ways.
The behaviour of someone in Vickie's situation is often portrayed as aberrant or ridiculous, but here she is a normal person with a healthy libido and creative imagination being ground down by babies, nappies, housework and a preoccupied husband. Many in her situation would just walk out, but she sticks with it and is able to feed her creativity back into her ordinary life. A pleasant change of story from the average family court file, but not unheard of, and nicely told here.
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