The first great Australian film of the year, LOOKING FOR GRACE, is Sue Brook’s deceptively simple story of how unsimple our everyday lives are.
The film opens with a bus weaving its way through the West Australian wheat belt. On board is Grace, who has run away with her best friend, Saph, Ceduna bound to catch a band. Also on the bus is a young drifter, Jamie. It’s not long before the attraction between Grace and Jamie make Saph feel superfluous and she bows out of the great adventure. Grace and Jamie spend a night in a one horse town.
In the meantime, Grace’s parents, Dan and Denise, have embarked on a recovery mission, with the aid of a semi retired detective, Tom.
Sue Brooks beautifully crafted screenplay is segmented to give each of the characters some back story that led to their place in the present, so we get a glimpse of the baggage packed for the journey taken.
The idea for LOOKING FOR GRACE came to writer and director Sue Brooks when, while travelling on a plane, she read an article about teenage girls who had stolen money from their parent’s safe and then run away. Sue was intrigued by the idea that teenagers think what belongs to their parents, belongs to them too.
That inspiration is core to a pivotal scene in the picture, where a more conventional narrative would have opted for closure, but here it’s anything but.
Odessa Young is superb as Grace. A rising star soon to grace our screens with another stunning performance in The Daughter, she embodies the mix of arrogance and fragility of late adolescence.
Radha Mitchell as her mother Denise gives a beautifully nuanced characterisation with a subtle comedic edge.
Richard Roxburgh’s Dan, Grace’s father, is the epitome of confused, frustrated middle class, middle aged, mid management, mid life crisis candidate, his inarticulateness eloquently presented and pitched.
Terry Norris as Norris, the superannuated sleuth, further enshrines the actor as a national living treasure.
Apart from the quality quartet of the leads, Brooks has been particular in the casting of the supporting players, and gets high calibre performances from Julia Blake, Tasma Walton and Kenya Pearson, totally terrific as Grace’s jettisoned bestie, Saph.
Award-winning director of photography Katie Milwright exquisitely captures the open space of the West Australian landscape and Elizabeth Drake’s splendid score evokes the expanse of the journey and the interior terrain of the journeyers.
With its gorgeous locations, nicely pitched ear for dialogue, splendid performances, and beautiful composition of shots, LOOKING FOR GRACE lives up to its title.
A perfect picture to celebrate Australia Day.