Winter of Our Dreams (1981) User Reviews

cloudy with a chance of fear

[SteveSkafte · 8/10 · 12 March 2010]

There's something deeply real about this film, a next to totally forgotten Australian drama. Judy Davis (in her first feature role since "My Brilliant Career") creates a character with so much depth and straight reality, she'd have to work against it not to draw you in. Writer/director John Duigan creates a world populated by very real individuals, though not certainly likable ones. He goes for a slow-drawn, realist approach that - while leaving the visual appearance a little flat - places you quite exactly in these lives.

I went along with these characters, let them take me wherever they cared to. "Winter of Our Dreams" has this quality of it, this 60s/70s hangover quality of not knowing what really matters anymore. And if that's not something you've been feeling for as long as I have, you'll have a lot of trouble understanding the character of Lou. But let it sink in. It'll get to you.

An overlooked gem.

[robertsmike2005 · 9/10 · 28 July 2007]

I saw this film on TV years ago and have always had very fond memories of it. I've just seen it again and thankfully unlike many a film you remember affectionately only to find it's nowhere near as good as you thought on second viewing, this is still a great film. Criminally overlooked now, as indeed is the great Australian star Judy Davis, this film really does show just how absolutely superb some of the late 70's/early 80's Australian films were. Judy Davis gives one of the finest performances of her career and is utterly and heartbreakingly convincing. Bryan Brown, so often a tough action star, or wise-cracking charmer/rogue, is equally good in a very understated way, in fact when the two stars are together it almost seems like we the audience are actually intruding on their lives by watching. Excellent support too from Cathy Downes as Brown's wife and from a very young Baz Lurhman (before he took up directing). I don't think it's available on DVD (though i may be wrong), so it's probably going to be hard to track a copy down, but if you do get the opportunity and like thought-provoking human drama then do see it. I guarantee if you don't know how great an actress Judy Davis is or have never really seen her in anything other than a Hollywood film, then see this and you'll be totally blown away, just like i was all those years ago. Highly recommended !. p.s, If after seeing this you want to see Judy in more films which show just how versatile she can be then check out films like; A PASSAGE TO India, MY BRILLIANT CAREER, HOSTILE HOSTAGES (a.k.a, THE REF), or the TV-Film, ONE AGAINST THE WIND, not to mention the superb ensemble film from Woody Allen, HUSBANDS AND WIVES..

Dying dream of love

[edgeofreality · 4 April 2020]

A really sad, well-acted film about lost illusions and love gone wrong. We see Sydney's seamier side as well as it's well to do semi-Bohemian lifestyle. A prostitute pushing 30 meets a bookshop owner closer to 40. Despite her job she is the more innocent of the two and falls for him, while he is unwilling to leave his middle-aged, middle class comfort zone. Both Judy Davis and Bryan Brown are superb in difficult roles where she has to grow and develop and he almost shrink before our eyes, which is a thankless task for a charismatic star like Brown, but he succeeds so well he adds to Davis's performance. She on the other hand creates a character you feel you know and want to protect by the end. A truly great performance. The other actors are also very good, and the film further involved me with its real sense of time and location.

Hot Summer Nights

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 27 June 2023]

A drama along the lines of 'Klute' transposed to Sidney in the down-to-earth Aussie fashion in gaudy eighties colours in which concluding her Brilliant Career Judy Davis with her usual cynical elegance made a dramatic career move by trading in her stays and crinolines for lipstick & nail varnish the colour of blood blisters wearing a succession of tiny skirts and enormous earrings (appearing thus attired at the funeral of a friend) as a guitar-strumming, drug-addicted frizzy-haired hooker capable of out-staring a Siamese cat who crosses the path of Bryan Brown at whom she snorts derisively when he asks her if she reads books.

Loss of Idealism

[Dragonborn64 · 8/10 · 20 September 2020]

Twonn by people are brought together through the death of a mutual friend and the woman starts seeing parallels in her relationship with the man that the dead woman had. he is kind but detached. He wishes the best for them but holds them at arms length. Bryan Brown's performance is the most complex. his almost wooden quality actually adds to the enigma of his character. Judy Davis is excellent - a woman with a dark cloud over her who in the end may find a scrap of peace. A tiny gem.

Time isn't always a healer.

[hodo68 · 12 January 2003]

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!

An outstanding Australian drama

[vu · 11 November 1998]

I saw this movie once about 17 years ago, and have been wanting to buy a copy of the video ever since. Judy Davis & Bryan Brown give outstanding performances. In summary, a drama about a man's search for a woman he thinks he loves and wants to help.