Sweetie

source: Sweetie

source: Sweetie

Based solely on a tea leaf reading, superstitious and introspective Kay believes she and Louis are destined to fall in love with each other, he who she is able to convince of the same despite he just having gotten engaged to her co-worker, Cheryl. That destiny may change with the fortunes of what she sees as the next symbol of their relationship, a somewhat sickly elder tree Louis plants in their garden for their one year anniversary. This is Jane Campion's first feature, and her best. Some might point to "Angel at my Table", but I personally thought that film was terrible. "Sweetie" is funny, and has an interesting sense about it. One might even call it quirky, but it never quite goes full-quirky, keeping one foot firmly in the real world. It is sort of like Wes Anderson lite, and one has to wonder if he didn't draw some influence from Campion.

I just saw this as a new release on DVD. Usually I like Jane Campion. But this was way off. It was extremely hard to get through, and was in general just so strange. The acting was mediocre. If I was in a theater I would have walked out in the first half hour. The first 5 minutes seemed interesting especially the music, but as soon as the main character steals the boyfriends newly planted tree the picture quickly dies. Adding the severely psychotic sister to the movie just throws a massive curve ball to the movie. Yes Sweetie is somewhat key to the movie and it's titled after her, but showing 5-6 of her fits got to be too redundant.

When it starts off with the eccentric and shy Kay (Karen Colston) falling in love with the handsome Louis (Tom Lycos), Jane Campion's 1988 film SWEETIE promises a romantic comedy. When Kay's mentally ill sister Dawn (Genevieve Lemon) drops in, the film develops in a very different direction. Some element of comedy, very black humour, remains but overall the film is a family tragedy. The tragedy is that this disturbed young woman nicknamed "Sweetie" is simultaneously a victim of her own illness and an unwilling aggressor against her family, who feign love and acceptance but clearly would like to do without her. The strongest aspect of the film is Lemon's performance, one of the best screen portrayals of mental illness since Bergman's IN A GLASS DARKLY. Something I appreciate more on repeat viewing is that the background to this family drama is left ambiguous. That said, I would not list "Sweetie" among my favourite films: it is overall well-made and memorable but not quite at the level of effusive praise.

Director Jane Campion once said in an interview that while she was writing "The Piano" she thought that before she made such an adult film like that she would make a smaller and more personal film. So "Sweetie" is her most personal film and its about two sisters. The film starts out about Kay (Karen Colston) who is a shy and somewhat dysfunctional woman who has her tea leaves read and is told to look for signs of love and see's them in her friends fiance'. Somehow she manages to convince him to leave his fiance' and become her boyfriend. Later in the film as the two live together (But no sex!) Kays sister Dawn (Genevieve Lemon) drops in and creates all sorts of havoc. Dawn (AKA Sweetie) is also dysfunctional but mentally ill. Shifts in moods and very erratic behavior dominate the last quarter of the film and its here that we can somewhat see that one of the reasons Kay doesn't get along with Dawn is because she is such a free wheeler and Kay is not. Kay is jealous of this quality that Dawn possesses. The film is very offbeat but also uneven. Kays relationship with her boyfriend is curious. She goes to all the trouble of stealing someone else's boyfriend and when she gets him she is reluctant to be intimate. I wish their could have been more scenes of Kay and Dawn together in a more coherent fashion but mostly its scenes of Kay reacting in frustration at her sisters antics. I did like the way the film ended. The ending seems to establish the overall drive of the film and its leaves a dramatic mark on the story. Film is interesting to watch due to the fact that it was made a few years before "The Piano" so while die hard Campion fans will enjoy this more, the rest of you will have to depend on your open mind.

This film is one of the best films ever written and shot about the effects of mental illness on the psycho-dynamics of a family. Shot with a strongly claustrophobic sense of misé-en-scene, the extended family of Louis, Mom, Dad, Kay and Sweetie always crowd and clutter the frame, unable to extricate themselves physically and emotionally from one another. Geneviève Lemon's performance of a mentally ill young women (Sweetie/Dawn) sends chills up the spine of anyone who has worked with those who suffer like this. Although it does contain some nudity and slight sexual content, the dramatic push of the film as a whole makes this an extremely moving film even for teenagers, especially for families who are coping with mental illness. Campion's writing and above all her directing soars in this profound and compelling film.

Karen Colston isn't doing too well at the moment. It's not just that she's terrified of trees and that she and her husband haven't had sex in..... well, a long time, long enough for his attentions, if not actions to wander....but her marginal sister, Geneviève Lemon, has taken up residence by breaking a window. Meanwhile, her parents are bemused by both of them. Jane Campion has made a career out of movies about the marginal people who are just getting by, marginalized by the robust, beefy standards of Australia, people who don't understand them. Or perhaps they are not well in the head, or some combination of the two, needing insight in a culture that is more concerned with doing than introspection. An air of depression hangs over this movie, and I think that's the motivation: Miss Colston and Miss Lemon are depressed (Miss Lemon seems more manic-depressive) and no one seems to know this, even them. Lacking this insight, they find themselves thinking they're doing something wrong, since other people seem perfectly happy, and drive themselves deeper into that depression, without the consolation of self-awareness and a strong morality. It's a fine portrait. As a depressive myself, though, I find the movie sad and dispirited.

This film left a lasting impression on me from when I saw it aged about 15. Upon many years of reflection I suspect that the two female leads are two opposed elements of the writer's psyche. One, the super-ego and the other the id. The super-ego is fraught with a sense of place in the world, and trying to make the best of the values it finds directly around it, and the id is a tangle of senses and memories, caught up in the deepest recesses of childhood. That's what I found most striking about this film. It's so ego-less. That is what gives it it's fractured, purposeless other-worldly quality. I did not 'enjoy' this film. It is not a fun film. I also remember the light. What amazing glaring, evil sunlight. I must get a copy and watch it again, to see if it's like I remember it. I thought that the acting, editing, dialogue and general sense of timing were totally bewitching. For a week after watching this film I still felt as though I had returned home from a strange, alien world. I had been immersed, albeit temporarily in an extraordinary place, complete and tactile. Amazing.

Either the majority of reviewers here who raved about this film are crazy or I am for not seeing any reason to praise it in the slightest. There was little to no warmth or realistic human actions/reactions in the thing - just suddenly another left curveball scene out of the blue that had no connection to the previous scene or dialogue. *MAJOR SPOILER* The only humanness I noticed was when Kay desperately tried to give Dawn mouth-to-mouth rescusitation after showing nothing but disgust, exasperation, and frustration with her ever since Dawn descended on her with no warning and a broken window in the front door. In fact, there was very little dialogue in it, compared to most movies. The basic premise of the little sickly tree and various tree roots woven throughout, culminating with the root preventing the lowering of the coffin at the end, was vague and sketchy, especially in relation to the demented sister Dawn/'Sweetie'. And why on earth would they leave her alone while they went off somewhere far away, knowing how mentally ill and unpredictable she was? It would be the same as leaving a 5 year old child home alone for days on end. Why were they so dead-set against taking her with them? And of course they came home to a horrible mess in every room of the house since she had full rein to take out her revenge on them that way. How contrived and ludicrously unbelievable. Not sure what the point of it all was, other than a depressing, boring look at a dysfunctional family with the side character of Louis, who - by the way - just took off walking down the road in a fit of anger, without any luggage or belongings, never to be seen again, which begs the question: whose hairy legs were those near Kay's legs toward the end? Did Louis come back or was it someone else? Was it even Kay's legs or another woman's? Just one of the many frustrating things about this movie that made me glad and relieved to delete it from my DVR after the insanely long, slow credits.....(with African gospel music....?) And were the unnecessary * scenes really worth it? Was the entire movie worth making at all? My answer is NO to both. And now I'm glad to be done with this review and forget I ever saw it. 2 out of 10 / Grade D-