Radiance

I saw this film at the Bermuda Independent Film Festival in 2002. And, I keep waiting for it to come out on video so I can buy it.

This movie starts out a bit slow, but before you know it, you're so captivated by the characters and story. It will make you laugh, it will make you angry and it will make you cry. Once it gets going, mostly it will make you laugh.

Three sisters go home for their mother's funeral. Sounds like a "girl's movie" but it's not. Each one has a strong personality and has her own issues with herself and each of her sisters - not to mention her deceased mother, who has passed away before the movie begins.

I don't want to give too much of the plot away - but this is a movie worth seeing several times, and sharing with friends.

Three sisters are reunited by their mother's death. Having led separate lives, the girls seem to have little in common. The intense Mae stayed with Mum to the end. The brooding Chrissy has pursued a singing career overseas, the vivacious Nona is just becoming a woman. The funeral itself is a very sad affair. It seems reconciliation is still a long way off in this part of Australia. A single woman of dubious morality, and aboriginal at that, did not make for a large congregation of mourners. The girls get on with the grieving process as best they can, but it will come as no surprise that as well as Mum's ashes in the can, there are a few skeletons in this family's closet. A wonderful script gives credibility to this excellent drama with operatic overtones. Beautifully shot among the canefields on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, this is a story, indeed an epic for any millenium.

It's a curious thing that a death in a family brings out in the survivors a need to tell the truth about the deceased and each other. Family history is re-written and relationships re-adjusted (or laid waste). The worst peril of a funeral is not the emotional upheaval but the thought that the way you feel about your family might never be the same. Why confess, when we're all much better off believing in the lone stranger, or "black prince" as here? Well, there is a reason, according to this film. If you can survive the shock of finding out the truth, you will come out of it the stronger, and so will your most important relationships. Party girl Nona returns to her Queensland coastal home to find her mother has just died. Her famous opera singing sister Cressy arrives also. Their stay at home sister Mae is pretty morose but it takes a while to find out why. After the funeral, attended only by the sisters, the story starts to emerge. There is a night of booze and catharsis. The next day the sisters find themselves both bonded and liberated.

"Radiance" originated as a stage play, and it shows. Against that the director, Rachel Perkins has made full use of the Hervey Bay, Queensland, coastal landscape. The three sisters are aboriginal Australians, but this is almost incidental. As Nona, the party girl, Deborah Mailman is full of vigour and fresh sexuality. Rachel Maza plays the worldly opera singer Cressy with a complementary languidness. Stay at home Mae radiates resentment, yet in the end it is she who is the agent of liberation for them all.

A fine drama beautifully realised.

Radiance is a powerful Australian drama, set against beautiful rural backdrops, but it is the visuals within the story which leave the strongest impression. The intense scenes within the film are strengthened by their beautiful depiction on camera, as if the movie is an artwork. The music is also a major player here, with operatic arias being used unconventionally, yet effectively, against the rural scenery. The performances are spectacular, with Deborah Mailman, Trisha Morton-Thomas and Rachael Maza playing the sisters, separated, but brought together through the death of their mother. Maza is particularly touching as the musical talent in the family, now a successful opera singer, but bitter at having to return home, to her traumatic and troubled roots. A beautiful, heart-tugging 'artwork', well worth the effort.

With the death of their mother, two sisters (Nona and Cressy) return to their childhood home in Northern Australia where their third sister, Mae, lived looking after their mother. The funeral happens and the three find themselves together in the house for the first time in years. With time to talk, drink and fight, past hurts are revealed and family secrets come out.

From the plot synopsis you will immediately know that we are on familiar territory when it comes to female driven movies. This one is pretty much in a well known mould and travels a familiar narrative thread but not really to it's detriment. Instead the film is sparky enough and the revelations/devices interesting enough to really hold the interest no problem.

The cast really help the material as each of the three women are strong in their roles, each for different reasons. They use the material well to create characters that are interesting and have room for the audience to find out more. Of course, the fact that the film is very dialogue driven and features only three people for the majority, leaves the risk that the film will feel like a stage play on film rather than a film. To avoid this the director does a good job of using very good internal sets as well as wide-open externals on the beach or the open road.

Overall you will have seen this sort of female soul searching/family secrets film before but that doesn't make this a lesser film for that. The cast are really good value and the material is involving and interesting enough to keep the film moving along really well. The direction uses the cast well to have all the strengths of film while also keeping the dialogue and intimacy of a play.