Well, Blethyn delivers an reliably entertaining performance, if a little derivative of both her "Secrets and Lies" and "Little Voice" characters. Khan Chittenden's boy is endearing with his very real, but barely articulate tenderness for both family and new girlfriend - very Australian male. I thought Emma Booth's character quite unsympathetically written, and some gratuitously drooling shots of her arse in panties added to the general feel of soap-teen-bitch for her. For me, she exhibited very little natural charm with which to overcome these disadvantages.
But for me the most enjoyable aspect of this film was watching Rebecca Gibney, the real "lady" of Australian television, playing a sozzled best-friend tramp... She did it REALLY well, deglamourising herself in the way the Liz Taylor and Bette Davis did mid-way through their careers, and I wish someone would give her a juicy film role...
Overall, this was more a character study than a narrative film, but the characterisations and interactions were not always plausible. See it for Gibney's slumming and Blethyn's rendition of Nutbush City Limits at the end...
But for me the most enjoyable aspect of this film was watching Rebecca Gibney, the real "lady" of Australian television, playing a sozzled best-friend tramp... She did it REALLY well, deglamourising herself in the way the Liz Taylor and Bette Davis did mid-way through their careers, and I wish someone would give her a juicy film role...
Overall, this was more a character study than a narrative film, but the characterisations and interactions were not always plausible. See it for Gibney's slumming and Blethyn's rendition of Nutbush City Limits at the end...