As you will have read, this is an adaptation of a late 19th-century play by Ibsen. The last film interpretation was also Australian in 1983.
The casting of an American to represent the estranged son returning from the USA for the wedding was good as it removed the need to explain the return. These days with Facebook etc one questions if he would be so distant from his high school best friend. Also, should his accent be a pronounced given his Australian roots?
That said, it was a well-paced drama. Ibsen can be heavy but this did not drag and felt of the moment. The language is now, the tone is now my only concern is the ending as I question whether the ending rings as true today as it may have in the past. Sure, Hedvig has other triggers, which to a young adult would be graver than the question of one's ancestry.
The other characters are left hanging in the movie, which seems to move from Christian in the beginning as the protagonist to Hedvig at the end. Christain and his family are unresolved as a plot point.
Sam Neil and Geoffrey Rush are brilliant, pulling back from a stage bombast, which could have made the movie feel like a play. Leslie and Otto are also good, though Otto is under-developed given she is the pivot to the story.
The casting of an American to represent the estranged son returning from the USA for the wedding was good as it removed the need to explain the return. These days with Facebook etc one questions if he would be so distant from his high school best friend. Also, should his accent be a pronounced given his Australian roots?
That said, it was a well-paced drama. Ibsen can be heavy but this did not drag and felt of the moment. The language is now, the tone is now my only concern is the ending as I question whether the ending rings as true today as it may have in the past. Sure, Hedvig has other triggers, which to a young adult would be graver than the question of one's ancestry.
The other characters are left hanging in the movie, which seems to move from Christian in the beginning as the protagonist to Hedvig at the end. Christain and his family are unresolved as a plot point.
Sam Neil and Geoffrey Rush are brilliant, pulling back from a stage bombast, which could have made the movie feel like a play. Leslie and Otto are also good, though Otto is under-developed given she is the pivot to the story.