Geoff Brewster (Colin Friels) is waiting out his final days at the family’s isolated coastal shack in Tasmania. The intense, at times claustrophobic detailing of Geoff’s daily routine becomes a hypnotic miasma under Alkinos Tsilimidos direction.
The seemingly cathartic exercise of Geoff walking on the beach and leaving tape-recorded confessions for his estranged wife, are revealed by the end of the film as evidence of Geoff’s innate malice, his manipulative character and unwieldy lust.
Geoff’s Porsche-driving nephew Josh arrives and the games begin. Josh is played superbly by Nick Barkla as an ice smoking yuppie with a pathological hatred for his dying uncle or so Tsimilidos makes us think Geoff is not only dying he’s also going blind, soon to be reliant totally on his nephew. His estranged wife Sally is played with measured intensity by Gloria Ajenstat. Gloria visits, dutifully assisting Geoff as he continues with his confessional.
The ‘truth’ seems to hang heavy over the melancholy and ‘peotic vision of death constructed by Geoff. Yet, the truth is Josh’s weapon that he holds in reserve.
The scene where Josh confronts his aunty Sally with aspects of Geoff’s past is sheer sexual electricity. Geoff assisted by Josh in attending an audition of Hamlet is dark yet savagely comic. There is something of Harold Pinter in this work by Tsilimidos.
There is the constant menace, the broken and naive language pregnant with other meanings. The ‘truth’ is hidden by all of them only to generate an explosive end. The actors succeeded in creating an great ensemble work. Their performances are brilliant, even the cameo by Samuel Johnson as the local theatre director is memorable. Understandably, like all of Tsilimidos’ films, this one has been securing mixed reviews.
It is not an easy film, but it is a gauge of how great Australian filmmaking can be. This is no doubt Tsilimidos’ finest and bravest film to date. Blind Company Limited NSW/VIC/QLD release. Vic. Cinema Nova, Carlton; NSW Chauvel Cinema, Paddington; Qld The Barracks, Brisbane. Check newspapers for screening dates