Film Review: The Year My Voice Broke

Year Released:1987

Written & Directed By: John Duigan

Rating: (4/5 Stars)





Set in 1962 in New South Wales, Australia, this film opens on a light-hearted note and -- as one might expect -- turns a shade darker and more serious. On the cusp of puberty, Danny Embling (Noah Taylor of Shine and Red, White & Blue) falls for his childhood friend Freya (Leone Carmen). Meanwhile he struggles with raging hormones, bullies, and the tedium of small-town life.

Small Roles… Big Performances Blogathon

Ruth from FlixChatter is hosting a wonderful blogathon titled Small Roles … Big Performances. The purpose is to choose memorable performances by supporting actors -- preferably lesser-known actors -- that may have gone unnoticed by many people.

MovieBuff25 hasn't blogged for a while, partly because she's been busy writing a screenplay, so I was glad we decided to participate in this event together. She and I tweaked the rules, choosing actors in leading roles rather than supporting actors. However, these are all performances and films we feel deserve more attention. Please see this post for the actual rules for this blogathon.

MovieBuff25's Picks:

Aidan Gillen as Aidan -- Treacle Jr. -- Aiden Gillen is better known for his roles in Queer as Folk and Game of Thrones, but he shines in this under-rated British indie film.

From MovieBuff's Review: No one does slice-of-life drama and acerbic humor like the Brits, and the curiously named Treacle Jr. showcases this, as well as some damned good acting from the cast, particularly Aidan Gillen ... Aidan's the kind of guy most people stay away from. He's earnest, hyper, and completely free of any social graces. Aidan's naive and enthusiastic to a fault, but Tom soon discovers he has problems too ...

Sandra Huller as Michaela -- Requiem -- I haven't seen much discussion of this actress or this award-winning German art house film.

From Movie Buff's Review:  When Michaela first begins to suffer seizures, blackouts, and hallucinations, she manages to cover up the incidents.  Her requests for help from a priest invoke less-than-helpful response. She begins going out with a boy who promises, when asked, to stand by her, foolishly ignoring the conditions.

When her parents do discover her degeneration, they make the tragic decision to involve the church in her rehabilitation. While her stretches of coherency become rarer, she becomes a spiritual guinea pig for exorcisms and is denied the psychiatric care she so desperately needs.

Noah Taylor as Nate -- Red, White & Blue -- Noah Taylor, who I will always remember best for his brilliant performance in Shine, played a chillingly convincing sociopath -- with just the right balance of subtlety and cruel determination, in Red, White and Blue. He did, in fact, win an award for his work in this movie, but we still feel this is a relatively little known role that deserves more attention.

This film is reviewed here, and I also discussed this character here (he's #12 on the list).

QuirkyBibliophile's Picks:

Dwight Yoakam as Doyle -- Sling Blade -- Yoakam has garnered plenty of attention as a successful country music singer and songwriter, actor and director, but I feel this role hasn't earned the attention it deserves.  

Sling Blade is one of my favorite films -- there is something so raw and real about it -- and I am a big admirer of Billy Bob Thornton as an actor and director, although -- granted -- he's wasted his time on some real cinematic dog shit.

Doyle is the controlling, abusive live-in boyfriend of a hard-working single mom and a truly horrible wanna-be musician. When he's over-the-top bat crap crazy, like in the scene below, he is frightening and darkly comedic. However when he's calm, trying to be a "nice guy," he's even scarier. Every moment he was on screen, I felt the fuse shortening.

Aidan Gillen -- Buddy Boy -- Gillen seems to have gained a lot of attention from television work, including his role as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in Game of Thrones. However, I will always remember him best for his role as a mentally ill young man in this little known, rather bizarre Indie movie. 

I found myself being drawn into his dark world and his complex web of obsessions, delusions, and hallucinations. According to MovieBuff, in her review of this film, "Gillen ... plays his character sensitively and gently, as a fundamentally benevolent albeit strange outcast damaged by trauma and psychosis."

Red, White, & Blue

If you have seen this director's previous U.S.-available effort, The Living & the Dead, you'll know the drill- everything that can go wrong does, and his films navigate the uncomfortable grey areas of the human psyche. Being a fan of Simon Rumley's The Living & the Dead, I decided to check it out, despite similarly mixed reviews and a nagging feeling in the back of my gut.

    Boy, this film is brutal. If Rumley meant to outdo the violence and nihilistic tone of his previous movie, he succeeded. All the main characters make uniformly bad and immoral decisions, and all of them suffer for it. The movie starts out with a sleazy feel, with promiscuous Erica (Amanda Fuller) getting into bed with random strangers at a nightclub.

     Then she meets Nate (Noah Taylor,) who got a honorable discharge from Iraq. Although he tips her off almost immediately that he has a history of torturing and killing animals, Erica is drawn to him, mostly because he is the first man in a long time who doesn't seem to be after sex.

   The film then puts a third character into the mix, Franki (Marc Senter), who is taking care of his sick mother Ellie (Sally Jackson. whose kind and sympathetic character reminds the viewer of Kate Fahy's Nancy in The Living and the Dead.) Franki has a rock band going with his various buds and hates his father. The family is thrilled when Ellie goes into remission, but tragedy lurks just around the corner, and Erica's crime has unexpected repercussions.

   Gandhi's advice, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind," seems to apply here. Like Todd Field's In the Bedroom, revenge only hurts those who practice it, and no one seems to get much gratification out of it (except for one, who is basically a sociopath.) But even the sociopath is capable of compassion,, which makes the dynamic between the characters all the more puzzling.

   . I love Rumley's style, with his moral ambiguity, interesting cinematography, and tense situations. But Red, White, & Blue has scenes and gaps in storytelling that make it seem less professional. The music during the torture scenes, for instance, is discordant and not in a good way, like taking bad inspiration from Psycho. Some scenes open awkwardly in the middle of the action, and end just as uncomfortably. An example is when Erica is almost raped by a co-worker.

   The beginning shot of the scene takes place in the middle of the attack, and Nate lingers for a moment before hitting the attacker with a hammer off-screen. The next scene shows Nate approaching and sitting next to a teary Erica. But happened to the would-be rapist? Was he killed and his body disposed of? Arrested? Taken to the hospital? He disappeared without a trace. There are several scenes like that, which leave the viewer rather confused.

     Some of the dialogue is rather stiff and drawn out, and several lines sound alien from the way  anyone I know speaks. The acting is good, however, with unknown actors (Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter) turning in capable performances. Noah Taylor, who you may know as the teenage version of the pianist David Helfgott in the biopic "Shine," does creepy and brutal nicely. And the last scene of violence goes above and beyond over the top, amounting to one of the most disgusting things I've seen in a long time.

     Should you see it? Despite panning reviews, it's not "only an exploitation film." Although it is a bit rough at times. it has a sense of style and has Rumley's essential humanity, light amongst the darkness. Go see it if you have a strong stomach, and be sure to watch The Living and the Dead, which has a classy Gothic atmosphere and more involving, likable characters.