As the opening narration points out, accidents happen and what matters is how we deal with them. Here, the Conway household has been torn apart by a car accident that left a daughter /sister dead and a son/brother in a vegetative state. Eight years on and little has been resolved. Son, Billy (Harrison Gilbertson) takes on all the blame for this and an array of other accidents that go sadly wrong as his mother, Gloria, (Geena Davis) sees her life’s hopes fade. Their neighbours, the Posts, also get caught up in the turmoil to their own significant loss.

Davis dominates the screen in a performance that reminds you of Joanna Lumley. Gilbertson, an excellent young talent, does admirably as the co-star and comparisons to Leonardo DiCaprio at the same age are warranted.  Ben Nott’s cinematography is imaginative and appropriate and helps lift what may otherwise be drab suburban house scenes.

Director Andrew Lancaster and writer Brian Carbee deal with the material through both melodrama and acerbic wit. This dual theme approach is both risky but also surprisingly common in Australian family mess-up films of recent years (eg Black Balloon.) Providing audiences with a safe way to endure domestic misery may boost bums on seats but the price is always that the emotional lows and the highs fall short on their impact.

Just why this very Australian film needed to be set in the US is beyond me but otherwise this is fine entertainment.

Kryztoff Rating    3.5K