Take My Hand is supposedly one man's ode (writer/director, Raftopoulos) to his MS-stricken wife (Claire Jensz), but it also spends an inordinate and distasteful amount of time demonising Jensz's late husband, who is portrayed in the movie as a neglectful and distant husband and father consumed by his work and social engagements. The late Mark Pennycook died of a heart attack at 48, while his movie counterpart dies in a car accident following a heated argument with his wife. It is incongruous how Raftopoulos altered the cause of death, but not the bad husband characterisation, even if it were true. It seems extremely disrespectful to Pennycook and I wonder what his family has to say about it.
It is over an hour into the 100-min movie before Laura (real life Jensz) rekindles her relationship with Michael (real life Raftopoulos). Taking a chronological perspective made the story plodding and I fast forwarded in some parts to arrive at the point where she relocates her family back to Australia, following her losses. Personally, I would begin the story at her late husband's funeral, flashing back to the events before his death, including her MS diagnosis and getting fired. The move back to Australia would follow, succeeded by scenes of her running into her old flame and cutting back to their first meet when they were just teenagers.
But what would I know? I'm not the multi-millionaire who listed my Byron Bay house for 25 million dollars. Many people suffer from MS and I know some of them personally. It's difficult to feel sorry for an extremely well-to-do family when most people with MS are doing it much tougher without the resources that these two possess.
