WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD (if that's appropriate for a semi-biographical film).
It's probably not doing Jill Ker-Conway an injustice to describe her as a bossy feminist, since she has been president of a US ivy league women's college for many years and is one of the few Australian women to be the chair of a major public company, Lend Lease. Amateur psycho-historians would no doubt hypothesise that a driving force in such a career is conflict with a domineering father, but in Ker Conway's case the conflict was with her mother, at least after her father's death which occurred when she was 11.
This film, based on a memoir by Ker Conway, deals with her upbringing on Coorain, a remote western NSW sheep station, and her relationship with her difficult, loving but rather austere mother, Eve. The early days are idyllic, and both parents, though strong characters, are balanced off against each other, and the family is a happy and secure one, despite drought and war. After Bill (a fine portrayal by Richard Roxburgh) dies however, the emotional demands of bringing up three children and keeping the family fortunes intact drive Eve Ker to self-pity and, to some extent, to the bottle. Ironically, the Korean war wool boom makes her rich but for Eve, it's all too late as Bill is no longer there to share it with.
Jill gets to go to Abbotsleigh, a fine school for young ladies in Sydney, and to the (then) only game in town for aspiring intellectuals, the Arts Faculty at Sydney University. She does well academically but despite the attending the odd party with the Mr Bean-like Felix Williamson, she remains undeveloped emotionally until she meets up with Alec, an American mining engineer (in the woolshed at Coorain during the uni vacation). Alec helps her discard her `emotional wet weather gear', as he describes her reserved manner, but, needless to say he is not free. Instead, there's the application for Harvard.
Juliet Stevenson as Eve has the most demanding role, as her character's personality undergoes a marked change on the death of her husband, yet she carries it off seamlessly. Katherine Slattery as Jill doesn't have such a tough job, but projects the naïve seriousness the role requires. Some of the dialogue verges on the melodramatic; after all country Australians usually keep their mouths shut so the flies don't get in, as Jill informs Alec at one point. Jill Ker Conway herself apparently took exception to aspects of the portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship, probably because of some of the overheated dialogue, but overall the relationship is put in a positive light, as the final voice-over makes clear. As someone else said to me the other day, most of us never really get over our mothers. Here, after all, we are looking at someone who has by any standard done exceptionally well, and Mum ought to be allowed some of the credit for that.
It's probably not doing Jill Ker-Conway an injustice to describe her as a bossy feminist, since she has been president of a US ivy league women's college for many years and is one of the few Australian women to be the chair of a major public company, Lend Lease. Amateur psycho-historians would no doubt hypothesise that a driving force in such a career is conflict with a domineering father, but in Ker Conway's case the conflict was with her mother, at least after her father's death which occurred when she was 11.
This film, based on a memoir by Ker Conway, deals with her upbringing on Coorain, a remote western NSW sheep station, and her relationship with her difficult, loving but rather austere mother, Eve. The early days are idyllic, and both parents, though strong characters, are balanced off against each other, and the family is a happy and secure one, despite drought and war. After Bill (a fine portrayal by Richard Roxburgh) dies however, the emotional demands of bringing up three children and keeping the family fortunes intact drive Eve Ker to self-pity and, to some extent, to the bottle. Ironically, the Korean war wool boom makes her rich but for Eve, it's all too late as Bill is no longer there to share it with.
Jill gets to go to Abbotsleigh, a fine school for young ladies in Sydney, and to the (then) only game in town for aspiring intellectuals, the Arts Faculty at Sydney University. She does well academically but despite the attending the odd party with the Mr Bean-like Felix Williamson, she remains undeveloped emotionally until she meets up with Alec, an American mining engineer (in the woolshed at Coorain during the uni vacation). Alec helps her discard her `emotional wet weather gear', as he describes her reserved manner, but, needless to say he is not free. Instead, there's the application for Harvard.
Juliet Stevenson as Eve has the most demanding role, as her character's personality undergoes a marked change on the death of her husband, yet she carries it off seamlessly. Katherine Slattery as Jill doesn't have such a tough job, but projects the naïve seriousness the role requires. Some of the dialogue verges on the melodramatic; after all country Australians usually keep their mouths shut so the flies don't get in, as Jill informs Alec at one point. Jill Ker Conway herself apparently took exception to aspects of the portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship, probably because of some of the overheated dialogue, but overall the relationship is put in a positive light, as the final voice-over makes clear. As someone else said to me the other day, most of us never really get over our mothers. Here, after all, we are looking at someone who has by any standard done exceptionally well, and Mum ought to be allowed some of the credit for that.