While not a great film there is plenty to like about this film. It concerns the relationship between a "bohemian" bookshop owner and a prostitute whom he meets when researching an article prompted by the suicide of an ex-girlfriend with whom he had lost touch many years before.
As the title alludes to, the film is in a sense about the passing of youthful idealism, so it is some extent permeated with a certain sadness. What is refreshing is the understatedness of the whole film. The relationship between the prostitute, admirably played by Judy Davis and Bryan Brown the bookshop owner has parralells to the relationship between the dead lady and Brown in the turbulent days of the sixties in their youth. Extracts from her diary which has been found by Davis who was the dead girls friend reveal that her love was largely one sided and he rejected her after several months. She was obviously a lot more infatuated with him than vice-versa and the infatuation the junkie prostitute develops with him is a parallel to this.
I really enjoyed the Bryan Brown character. Bryan Brown is a very underrated actor..seen by some unfairly as a one dimensional "ozzie" type. I think this film , is an example of how good he can be. His character is not a bad man, he never promised anything or lied to either his ex or the Judy Davis character - he may want to keep her at arms length but he wants the best for her. He has however a detachment to life that some would find admirable, some would find strange. He and his wife live in an "open" relationship, they are quite loving and seem to have a strong relationship, but she has a young lover while he quite happily seems to stay at home reading a book when shes out. It is quite interesting the junkie prostitute is quite puzzled, even surprised about this aspect of their relationship. He is fairly unshockable, not at all condemning of the prostitute and her lifestyle. Interestingly however he does not make excuses for her..he is fairly contemptuous of the whole Junkie scene, but not moral about it. My reading of the film is that this detachment and coolness is probably a symptom of a certain coldness in him. It never is spelt out, but his final scene where he is sitting all alone in a locker room after standing up the hysterical and possibly suicidal Judy Davis for a lunch date is quite effective. There seems to be a realisation of his own failings, the passing on of the ideals of youth, the disappointment of life..the "Winter of Our Dreams" of the title.
footnote...Keep an eye out for Baz Luhrmann of all people in a support role as a teenage junkie!
As the title alludes to, the film is in a sense about the passing of youthful idealism, so it is some extent permeated with a certain sadness. What is refreshing is the understatedness of the whole film. The relationship between the prostitute, admirably played by Judy Davis and Bryan Brown the bookshop owner has parralells to the relationship between the dead lady and Brown in the turbulent days of the sixties in their youth. Extracts from her diary which has been found by Davis who was the dead girls friend reveal that her love was largely one sided and he rejected her after several months. She was obviously a lot more infatuated with him than vice-versa and the infatuation the junkie prostitute develops with him is a parallel to this.
I really enjoyed the Bryan Brown character. Bryan Brown is a very underrated actor..seen by some unfairly as a one dimensional "ozzie" type. I think this film , is an example of how good he can be. His character is not a bad man, he never promised anything or lied to either his ex or the Judy Davis character - he may want to keep her at arms length but he wants the best for her. He has however a detachment to life that some would find admirable, some would find strange. He and his wife live in an "open" relationship, they are quite loving and seem to have a strong relationship, but she has a young lover while he quite happily seems to stay at home reading a book when shes out. It is quite interesting the junkie prostitute is quite puzzled, even surprised about this aspect of their relationship. He is fairly unshockable, not at all condemning of the prostitute and her lifestyle. Interestingly however he does not make excuses for her..he is fairly contemptuous of the whole Junkie scene, but not moral about it. My reading of the film is that this detachment and coolness is probably a symptom of a certain coldness in him. It never is spelt out, but his final scene where he is sitting all alone in a locker room after standing up the hysterical and possibly suicidal Judy Davis for a lunch date is quite effective. There seems to be a realisation of his own failings, the passing on of the ideals of youth, the disappointment of life..the "Winter of Our Dreams" of the title.
footnote...Keep an eye out for Baz Luhrmann of all people in a support role as a teenage junkie!