Go

Children of the Revolution

Year: 1996
Director: Peter Duncan
Writer: Peter Duncan
Cast: Judy Davis, Richard Roxburgh, Rachel Griffiths, Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill, F Murray Abraham, Marshall Napier
An Australian movie that came quietly, went nowhere, and disappeared just as quietly, but deserved so much more attention and accolades. If it had come out in the latter half of 2005, where our industry is supposedly a dying fish, it might have done better, but surrounded by Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel's Wedding it's no wonder it got drowned out.

A firebrand young communist, played by Judy Davis, is appalled at the anti red rhetoric being spouted by the Menzies government and travels to Soviet Russia to pledge her support, sharing Stalin's bed on his last night alive.

She gets pregnant, and her son (Roxburgh) grows up a political troublemaker himself among the Australian business community.

That's the idea; the movie follows the family foibles of mother and son, the man who's been quietly pursuing Davis for years and wishes she wasn't so firey (Rush) and the policewoman Roxburgh falls for and marries.

Done at times in a semi-documentary style, it's not altogether clear sometimes if it's parodying something (and if so, what) but the idea is intriguing, the wit and dialogue are razor sharp and the performances are all great.

© 2011-2023 Filmism.net. Site design and programming by psipublishinganddesign.com | adambraimbridge.com | humaan.com.au