Emma's War

I like Australian movies. They are alive. But Emma's War is a failure. They never made up their mind about whose war they were portraying; Emma's or her mother's. There are many stories in it and it ends with no story. The initial sequences at the Teosophic School are completely pointless and soon forgotten. The episode of Emma's mother and the US sailor has feeling and good performances. But when the family decides to go to the country, the picture becomes a shambles, and a new story emerges, that of the conscientious objector. Did Australia really treat its conscientious objectors as traitors? Anyhow, this third episode is the only one that has any connection with the movie's title. And it is left unresolved. A very fine performance by Lee Remick (how beautiful she still is!), and a very interesting one by the lovely Miranda Otto is all I would save from what is, besides, the slowest and most tiresome picture of recent years.