Aden Young emanates spiritual intensity and grief as the exiled man in this gothic meditation on love and loss. Peter was a poor man, forced to commit a small crime to win the girl who he loved, and made to pay an extremely harsh price for his crime. The injustice of this situation and his loss of his love obviously eats away at him while he struggles to survive in the most primitive of circumstances.
The film is slow-moving with the cinematography emphasising the harsh isolation of the steep-cliffed island with the sound of ever-crashing waves often overpowering the few dialogues, or more often monologues.
Though set in the 19th century, the primitive life of the colonists makes the film feel more medieval, particularly with the odd appearance of the ghost of an monk (Norman Kaye) from an exile 300 years before.
Fortunately the film leaves the island from time to time to visit those Peter left behind on the mainland, particularly the girl he loved, Jean (Claudia Karvan) who is now sad and pregnant to the rich man her father forced her to marry. But it is a servant, Mary (Beth Champion), whose loneliness impels her to join Peter and end both their solitudes.
While the film eventually captures this simple story of loss and love, the film is too slow, cold and bleak to be truly satisfying, and the sound problems - where the background sounds overwhelm the speech (a regular annoyance with Paul Cox's films) detracted from the film.
Nevertheless, there is a spirituality and a humanity that will please some viewers.
The film is slow-moving with the cinematography emphasising the harsh isolation of the steep-cliffed island with the sound of ever-crashing waves often overpowering the few dialogues, or more often monologues.
Though set in the 19th century, the primitive life of the colonists makes the film feel more medieval, particularly with the odd appearance of the ghost of an monk (Norman Kaye) from an exile 300 years before.
Fortunately the film leaves the island from time to time to visit those Peter left behind on the mainland, particularly the girl he loved, Jean (Claudia Karvan) who is now sad and pregnant to the rich man her father forced her to marry. But it is a servant, Mary (Beth Champion), whose loneliness impels her to join Peter and end both their solitudes.
While the film eventually captures this simple story of loss and love, the film is too slow, cold and bleak to be truly satisfying, and the sound problems - where the background sounds overwhelm the speech (a regular annoyance with Paul Cox's films) detracted from the film.
Nevertheless, there is a spirituality and a humanity that will please some viewers.
