Apparently someone wasn’t sure what to call this. It was Clubland when it played at the Sundance Film Festival and in its home country, Australia. That’s not the best title because it isn’t about any club scene. But this new one sounds a little too perky, like it might be The Full Monty. In any case, I wasn’t prepared for such a perceptive coming-of-age story wrapped around a seriocomedy about a mother trying to revive a once-promising showbiz career. Brenda Blethyn is the most familiar face, playing an English-born comedienne who pours the resentment of her failed marriage and self-imposed Australian exile into her polished but second-rate act. Her two grown sons, the older of whom has cerebral palsy, chafe in the shadow of her outsize personality. Meanwhile the younger one (Khan Chittenden) meets a girl, played by the promising Emma Booth. Their scenes together are alone worth seeing the movie for. Portraying burgeoning sexuality in the halting, clumsy way in which most people probably first experience it, the movie tenderly tackles turf that Hollywood pretty much ceded back in the 1980s, or at any rate has reduced to a dirty joke. Introducing the Dwights definitely has humorous moments, yet so often they’re right in the middle of the sad parts, and I loved that. I also appreciated that, although the story is really about the boy becoming a man, the female characters are also strong. The acting is also excellent all around, including Richard Wilson as the slightly goofy older son. No matter the title, this is a movie that’s heartbreaking and uplifting all at once.
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