WENDY CRACKED A WALNUT
Australia, 1990, 84 minutes, Colour.
Rosanna Arquette, Hugo Weaving, Bruce Spence, Susan Lyons, Kerry Walker.
Directed by Michael Pattinson.
Wendy Cracked a Walnut is a housewife's romantic fantasy. But is it real and what is in the imagination? American actress Rosanna Arquette (inexplicably presented as a Sydney housewife) does her best as Wendy and with some charm, makes her sometimes believable. Bruce Spence is her comic, gangly husband. Hugo Weaving is the imagined romantic cad. Kerry Walker is very good as the envious co-worker. There is a fine line between comedy and corniness. Reviewers were unanimously devastating in their critics of this film. It was directed by Michael Patinson (Moving Out, Street Hero, Ground Zero.) It is often quite silly, but it is a stylish looking and mildly amusing comedy.
1. The negative critical reception of this film? Its qualities?
2. The use of Sydney locations, the inner city and the monorail, the bush? The workplace, affluent locations? Bruce Smeaton's atmospheric and comic score?
3. The title, the poem quoted initially, the tone?
4. The blend of fantasy and reality? The films establishing the reality, moving us into the realms of fantasy? The episode with Jake as fantasy in Wendy's imagination? How credible the plot?
5. Rosanna Arquette as Wendy - Fey and real? The opening with the bar, her make-up and style, dress? The tango? Ron in this fantasy? Her reading romantic novels, preoccupied, reading them everywhere? The melodramatic, romantic plot of the novel, the characters, actions, her voiceover reading? The parallels for her own fantasy? The reality of ten years married, the photo of herself and Ron, getting up in the morning, Ron forgetting, her hopes for the day, going out, her disappointment? Getting into bed and Ron going to work?
6. Wendy at work, her relationship with the boss, with the other women in the office, the chorus of caring friends? Deidre and her dominant attitudes, her bets, callous, the phone call, collecting the money, the chorus of concern and help? Wendy and herself, her loneliness? At the supermarket, the romantic novel; Jake and his singing? Aeroplane Jelly, the encounter at the supermarket, her romantic reactions, fears?
The rain, his driving the bus for her? The flowers for her (and for the bets)? The day out with her, in the rain, sharing, her disappointment? The champagne, the bath, his appearance and getting into the bath? The dancing and the tango? Her fears? Going home? The romance of Antoine's? Her finally telling him off and the audience seeing what the women saw, her imagining everything? Ron's return? Her having to cope with reality?
7. Wendy and her experience, loneliness, romance, relationships with men, sexuality, ideals, illicit relationships?
8. Ron in himself, selling sweets, the old van, going to the shop and his rivals beating him out? Breakdown, having to buy the water for $50? Driving, the tree, the lightning strikes, the old house, the, flat tyre, staying, talking to the Taggerts and their laconic responses? His work on the house, his return to Sydney? Disappointment with Wendy, the confrontation?
9. Jake as romantic cad: in the supermarket, Aeroplane jelly, driving the bus, the flowers, the car, the rain, the champagne, dancing at Antoine’s, the tango, the bath sequence? With Caroline and real name being Randy (as in the novel)? His failure, his being down on the floor? The ending and the comments ?
10. Deidre as tough, sex preoccupations, her bets, pretending about the phone call, wanting to advance in computerisation, wanting dates, the finale at the bar?
11. The boss, his attitude towards Wendy and the women, his strictness?
12. The women, their friendship with Wendy, the discovery of the thousand dollars? The pressure on Deidre to pay it back?
13. The waiters, the staff trying to sell Wendy the clothes? Incidental characters of fact and romance?
14. Themes of suburban housewives, marriages, relationships? Men and Women? Fantasy and romance?
