GIRL CLOCK

Australia, 2010, 83 minutes, Colour.
Veronica Neave, Queenie van de Zandt, Catarina Hebbard, Tarah Carey, Sean Dennehy, Steven Tandy, Jamie Dunn, Hari Jago, Adam Couper, Carol Burns.
Directed by Jennifer Ussi.

Many audiences are going to enjoy this film. It is a modestly budgeted film from Queensland with a fine cast who are probably not so well-known outside Brisbane (and that is a pity). It is a film from suburbia with people you might know but not know so well.

Not that the plot is without its problems for audiences to think about, some complex issues of relationships, sexuality and fertility. Not all audiences are going to necessarily agree with some of the attitudes and behaviour. But that is what drama is all about. (An American archbishop once said that he could not write a pastoral letter to the people of his diocese on a bioethical issue without consulting widely and listening to the experiences of people with a range of viewpoints. I watched this film – on principally women’s issues – in this vein.)

Girl Clock (probably more accurately, Middle Aged Woman’s Clock because the clock for pregnancy seems to be ticking faster and louder for the central character, Christine (Veronica Neave)). She is a career woman, a photographer, conscious of the approach of menopause but who feels an overwhelming compulsion to conceive a child. She has no partner. Much of her dilemma throughout the film is how to find one when she does not want and can’t commit to a permanent, let alone temporary, relationship. (Whether it is the writing or the skill of Veronica Neave or both, Christine does give the impression that, despite what she says, deep down she does want some lasting relationship.)

There are some funny episodes in her search for a partner which leads her to an ex-lover (who does not want to be used), a dating site with the expected group of eccentrics, to IVF. The finale is not what the audience is expecting and there is a scene which may/will have us thinking twice – to which another reviewer reminded us of deceased people’s wish to be organ donors and the question of where the limits are.

But, the film is not just about Christine and her ticking biological clock. She has two best friends, much her own age, and we share something of their stories. Mikki (Caterina Hebbard) is a researcher, aged an unwilling 42, whose obsession is her appearance and the feeling that people look through her. There is fine scene where her partner, wordlessly and sensitively, makes a gesture that affirms her as a person, a woman, and enables her to break through the obsession. (The partner, Tom, is played by Adam Couper who co-wrote the screenplay.)

And then there are Margot and Keith who have two adult children. They are the rock of the film, the reassurance to those who cannot commit that years of a happy, contented, marriage are more than possible. Queenie van de Zandt is a wonderful earth mother with a wry sense of humour. Jamie Dunn’s Keith is balding and certainly not thin, a wonderful, common-sensed father with a wryer sense of humour.

While the film is one of female sensibilities (co-written with a man to ensure no male-bashing, produced and directed by a woman who has drawn on her own life experiences), most of the male characters in the film are quite sympathetic.

There are lots of funny moments, lots of sad moments (and a wonderful cameo by Carol Burns as a lonely old woman whose dog Christine has accidentally run over).

The issues are real, especially for women, and an alert for male viewers. As has been said, not everyone will agree with the women’s decisions and the consequences but, because the film is human and humane, their actions ask for humane consideration.

1. The title, the middle-aged woman clock? The biological clock ticking?

2. The Australian perspective, the city of Brisbane, the suburbs, homes, parks and the river? Authentic? The musical score?

3. The characters from suburbia, ordinary, relationships, problems?

4. The introduction to the three central women? Establishing them and their personalities? Christine, from Africa, photographer? Mikki, her relationships, concern about her appearance? Margo and her family? Their talk, friendship, the beauty treatment, Christine smoking, the ease amongst the three?

5. Christine as focus, her age, her past relationships, cleaning the car with Bob, his strict focus on the car, Christine being upset with him? The later meeting with him, his wanting her back, her proposal about the pregnancy, his refusal to be used? The background of her travel to Africa, the photos, anticipating going to Tibet, the offer – and her turning it down? Her photographing children? Her sympathetic boss, his diabetes, the injections and the syringes in her purse? At home, alone, with the other woman, their advice? Running over the dog, the sympathetic talk with the old lady, her loneliness, helping her bury the dog? The overwhelming urge to have a child, its becoming obsessive? Her decisions, Bob refusing her? Her seeing the various men, the phallic symbol at the market, the IVF enquiry, the computer dating service and the eccentric men, their manners, ventriloquist, questionnaires? Going home with the man, his sexual behaviour, his wife turning up? Giving Tony a lift, the encounter in the car, his keeping himself for his wife? Going back to the IVF, meeting Paolo? The decision, neither wanting a commitment?

6. Paolo and the dinner, the possibilities of a future relationship despite their denials, getting ready, Christine in the bathroom, discovering Paolo dead, the effect?

7. Ringing her friends, the dead man, the syringe, the issue of sperm donor, hurrying, the ice and preserving the sperm?

8. The pregnancy, the end, the humour, the friends together with Christine?

9. Mikki’s story, research, her partnership with Tom, sympathy, her looking in the mirror, concerns about her appearance, facelift, feeling that everybody looked through her at the age of forty-two? Tom taking the photo, her anger, smashing the camera? Making up? The scene in the bathroom, Tom gently with the moisture, removing her makeup – and enabling her to be herself, to bee seen as herself?

10. Margo’s story, Karla going to university, moving out of home, cooking the meals? Simon and his relationship with his wife, moving out, his mother giving him money for the hotel? His later coming to stay? The long marriage with Keith, his playing golf, coming home, the naked dancing, the bedroom sequences and their ease with each other, chat, reading, jokes? Helping each other? Margo as the wise earthmother?

11. The sympathetic portrait of the men, Bob and his single-mindedness yet his resenting being used? Christine’s boss, wanting her to have a career, the help with the diabetes? Tom and his kindness? Keith as a good man? Paolo, nice, playing the violin, saving the man’s life in the park? Simon and his relationship with his wife?

12. Simon, the dinner at home, the wife, her making a pass at Karla, the reactions?

13. The important fertility issues, the ethical questions, the moral stances, in a non-religious society? The treatment of Paolo’s dead body?

14. The human perspective of the characters in the film – enabling audiences, unsympathetic to the moral stances, to watch and listen and understand?