Unconventional behaviour in a small town

Press, 7 March 1988, Page 20

Unconventional behaviour in a small town

JcMtemcr

hans petrovic

“THE UMBRELLA WOMAN” Directed by Ken Cameron Screenplay by Peter Kenna ! "Am I my brother's keeper? And my wife’s as well?” seems to be the main question raised in “The Umbrella Woman" (Academy). j : “Certainly not; if they are having it off! together right under my nose,” one would think, should be the answer to that 'question, but social conventions are turned on their head in this Australian film, which

allows for some rather strange behaviour in the small New South Wales logging town of Corrimandel. Then again, perhaps some or the good people’s doings are not really I all that scandalous by the standards of morality of todays but seemed absolutely outrageous to the small-town njentality of 1939, the year in which the film is set. i What amazes me is to-' day’s firmly held romantic notion that the people of more than,3o years ago lived in a golden age of

innocence, totally oblivious to such modern-day malaises as sex, death, starvation and income tax. ! The point after which we were visited with such burdens is usually taken as the assassination of President Kennedy, which was clearly used as the demarcation point for the end of this age of innocence in “Dirty Dancing.” i The same argument seems to say that the further back you go, the more innocent people must have been. Therefore. if you want to have a look at some pretty dumb

sexual shenanigans from our knowing, post-Ken-nedy vantage point, set it back about half a century — just when my own parents would have been courting. From the cinematic point, this has the a!dded advantage of livening the proceedings with sbme pretty nifty period costuming. I This story concerns. Marge (Rachel Ward), who is married to Sonny (Bryan Brown), a timbercutter. He is a thoroughly decent sort by any treasure, ! but a little on the dull side for Marge's

romantic! aspirations. After one disappointing love-making, Marge saVs to Sonny ? “It seems as if nothing exciting will ever happen to me,” Saying! that in any movie is 1 like wishing on

yourself the ancient Chinese curse: “May you lead a long and interesting life.” Sure as the kookaburras will cackle in the coolabah tree at sunrise, Marge has wished on herself and husband more troubles than she could ever have dreamt of in her innocence. z The rot starts when, with Sonny’s consent, she spends a night of lovemaking with his younger brother, Sugar (Steven Vidler), while Sonny sleeps on the veranda. Sugar is a bit dim and just wanting to play the

same games his older brother enjoys; we have already said that Marge is the innocent; but somehow, I would have thought that the stalwart Sonny would have known better than to let this sort of thing go on under his roof — particularly in a small community where gossip spreads faster than a bushfire. Then, stepping out of the steam of a locomotive comes the hotel’s new bar tender, Neville Gifford (Sam Neill). He sports a Clark . Gable moustache, has the sleazy shamble of

a Jack Nicholson, and the air of a poor woman’s Cary Grant. No wonder that the romantically starved females of Corrimandel take to him like felines to catnip. Only Ifive minutes off the train, and Neville already is propositioning Marge among the bushes. Nothing comes of this encounter, but for Marge, it sows the seed for an unhealthy sexual fixation which reaches the preposterous stage of her shifting into the boarding house opposite the hotel, so that she can watch

Neville’s every move. The final showdown in the hotel could have come from, a Marx Bros movie from the same era, and the moment of truth on the departing train also makes good cinema. Eventually, Sonny’s true love and decency conquers all. However, do not think too deeply about the good people’s motivations. For all I know, the same thing may still be happening today in Waimate, but it would be less stressful to witness it all in living colour at the Academy.