Boundaries of the Heart (1988) User Reviews

Heartbreak Hotel

[bcrumpacker · 5/10 · 1 May 2013]

SPOILER ALERT! A small dreary film set in a small dreary Aussie town full of friendly but nosy drunks. A fading beauty and her fugitive celebrity father run the only hotel and bar. Her admirers drifted away as the town shrank, leaving only one bitter ex-suitor. Their tiny world is shaken up by the arrival of two outsiders. A woman stays to marry the father, a man can't wait to escape the now desperate beauty's clutches.

The good: this movie is well written, well directed, well acted. Wendy Hughes and John Hargreaves are excellent as usual. The bad: Sort of an Aussie Last Picture Show, but much less interesting visuals and story. Frankly, the subject matter is a downer. The weird: Considering the fact that this tiny town is surrounded by the vast stark beauty of Western Australia, the movie feels claustrophobic. Bottom line: I'd rather watch Sirens again for the "scenery". This one gets a five because Wendy Hughes is always worth watching.

Wendy and John play Tennessee Williams in the outback

[PeterM27 · 5/10 · 17 November 2021]

The film is a vehicle for Wendy Hughes, who displays all her trademark charm and vulnerability as Stella, a fading beauty in a fading town, keeping her father company in their little pub deep in the WA outback.

John Hargreaves plays Andy, a travelling shearer and rodeo rider, full of masculine bravado as he returns to stay in Stella's pub, as he has for many years past, hoping that Stella will change her mind and marry him. Unfortunately Stella is too used to rejecting Andy to realise that she can no longer win the hearts of young local men, and that Andy is her best chance of happiness in the shrinking town.

The film is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams's Streetcar Named Desire, even using the same name for the woman whose fortunes are fading. The characters here have the same insecurities, failures, resentments and bad memories as Tennessee William's characters, and manage to make fools of themselves and hurt each other in the same ways.

Though this melodrama seems a bit dated now, the strength of the acting does lift this story, and there is a strong narrative and plenty of cutting dialogue to stave off the boredom such an old-fashioned story might suffer.