High Tide

Yeah, it's a chick flick and it moves kinda slow, but it's actually pretty good - and I consider myself a manly man. You gotta love Judy Davis, no matter what she's in, and the girl who plays her daughter gives a natural, convincing performance.

The scenery of the small, coastal summer spot is beautiful and plays well with the major theme of the movie. The unknown (at least unknown to me) actors and actresses lend a realism to the movie that draws you in and keeps your attention. Overall, I give it an 8/10. Go see it.

This film is a masterpiece of family relationships. The score by Pete Best is emotional and beautiful beyond words. A Suite is on CD. Google it.

There's a certain allure I've always found in discovering the great unknown film. These discoveries have nearly always been dramatic stories. In my experience, unknown sci-fi, action and horror are unknown for very, very good reasons. I found "High Tide" on video at a junk store, mixed in amongst countless dozens of tapes of varying quality. Of course, that's the only place I would find it, as it is still not on DVD.

While I was watching Judy Davis (as Lillie) throughout the course of this film, I was certain I was watching a great undiscovered performance. I had previously seen Davis in several small parts - and one starring role in "A Passage to India". But, although she was great in that film, "High Tide" is a different animal entirely. Judy Davis' performance is stunning, I cannot say enough good things about it. She shares an amazing on-screen relationship with young Claudia Karvan (as Ally), this film's other great actress. There's a lot of drama and quiet humanity they share together, the details of which I won't reveal here (see it for yourself!).

There's too much good in "High Tide" to cover in one review, but the film speaks well enough for itself. Laura Jones writes stunning dialogue, beautiful words for the mouths of real people. Gillian Armstrong directs her actors toward a growing, powerful honesty. She turns everyday things into powerful, human depictions. I felt so alive and changed by the story this film tells. It's a weightless and strong depiction of running and staying put. You're welcome to make a choice.

Quite good Australian film about Judy Davis as a back-up singer for an Elvis impersonator stopping off in a small town only to befriend a local teenage tomboy who ends up being the daughter she gave up as a baby after the father had died. Written and directed by Gillian Armstrong, this is a smart character driven drama with a complex performance by Davis. Her character could easily have been a simply villainous character who eventually seeks redemption, but Armstrong and Davis make her character more complex than that. She's not just someone who gave up a child, but who may have actually done it for good reason for herself and the child, though that also may have been self rationalizing. It's that non-black and white presentation of the situation that makes this film so interesting. Claudia Karvan as the teenage daughter also gives a strong performance and is an equally well drawn, well rounded character by Armstrong, who is more than just a character simply wanting to know why she was abandoned. On the downside, I think the film was populated by too many colorful supporting, who were certainly entertaining, but who took away from the primary story. There's also the main contrivance of the plot the entire film centers upon, but let's not go there. Despite these minor quibbles, "High Tide" is a terrifically smart and engaging character drama.

"High Tide" is one of the greatest movies most people haven't seen. If you just read a plot summary, the story may seem unbelievable. But thanks to writing, acting, directing and music scoring of the highest caliber, this film works on every level. According to director Gillian Armstrong, the role played by Judy Davis was originally written for a man. But Armstrong's husband suggested rewriting it for a woman. Davis gives one of her best performances in "High Tide," and that's saying something for such an accomplished actress. Physically she is a very mannered performer, reminiscent of such great actresses of the 1930s and '40s as Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. But Davis is also incredibly subtle. Just watch her face and you can see every thought process, every emotion. Davis' performance was helped tremendously by Gillian Armstrong, who is not afraid of lingering on a closeup way beyond when lesser directors would have cut away. It's one of her greatest strengths as a director. She allows a scene to play out. Nothing is rushed so everything unfolds naturally, helps add to the realism of "High Tide." (She does the same thing in "The Last Days of Chez Nous," another of her best efforts.) This is a movie to be cherished. It's an object lesson to mainstream Hollywood on how to turn what could have been a sappy, cliched movie into a moving work of art.