My Year Without Sex
Sarah Watt's new film My Year Without Sex explores how ordinary people create meaning out of their life experiences. However, Sarah contrasts everyday life, as lived by of a family in the Melbourne Western suburbs, to life-changing events when the central character Natalie, played by multiple AFI winning actress Sacha Horler, suffers a brain aneurysm. This theme (how do people make sense of life and death) returns in Sarah's exploration of the experiences of people who become seriously ill, which she started in Look Both Ways. I think that this film returns to some familiar ground but also extends the ideas Sarah seems to be curious about.
Despite the reality of life portrayed in the film Sarah Watt has managed to put together a story that is incredibly funny as well as having a strong emotional resonance. The "truth" of the film comes from the way by which audiences will be able to relate their own lives with the everyday Australian characters, partly because of the brilliant performances of the cast, perhaps more so because of the writing, direction and editing. There was nothing throughout the entire film that broke me out of the narrative. A special mention must go to Sacha Horler, who I have not seen in anything since Praise - she is just amazing - although the whole cast work exceptionally well.
I loved Sarah Watt's previous film Look Both Ways, which made me laugh and cry, so I had some expectations going into this film. Expectations can be dangerous, as if the experience of watching the film does not live up to them then they can be crushed. But the blend of ideas, acting, writing and direction to create consummate storytelling meant that I was thoroughly entertained.
Because of how funny and touching this film is I think it breaks out of the trap that a lot of Australian cinema seems to fall into of creating "worthy" and "important" stories, but stories that are not much fun to watch and which unfortunately can lead to the feeling that Australian film is not generally entertaining or fun. This was certainly my experience with the Australian film we watched during the week prior to this, although the flip side to "worthy" but dreary films are "quirky" Australian films with little substance, which are just as bad.
I'd strongly recommend going to see My Year Without Sex; folks living in Melbourne will especially get a kick out of it. 4/5 stars.
2 comments:
Thanks for the recommendation, Edward. There's a veritable chorus of praise for both her movies. I'll have to check them out.
Still haven't got around to seeing Revolutionary Road despite the very best of intentions. Found the Richard Yates' novel pretty absorbing.
Lad, I think you'd really enjoy this film being a boy from the working class suburbs of Melbourne.
I cannot really say enough nice things about Sarah Watt and her films here, but please go see it and support her work. I was going to type 'Go see it because it is Australian' but thought better of it, as I think people should see her films because they are good rather than purely because they are Australian.
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