_The Last Days of Chez Nous_

     Directed by Gillian Armstrong and written by Helen Garner, _The Last
Days of Chez Nous_ follows the dismantling of some assumed relationships,
and the development of others, somewhat less expected. It's a quiet and
surprising movie, full of suggested insights and tenuous truths. 

     Like her _High Tide_ (1987), this film centers on an Australian
family in the throes of emotional readjustment. Beth (Lisa Harrow) is a
writer by profession, an organizer and a smoother-over by nature, married
to French immigrant J.P. (Bruno Ganz, with an imperfect accent that grows
on you). They live in a small house (called Chez Nous) in Sydney with
Beth's adolescent daughter Annie (Miranda Otto) and a boarder, Tim (Kiri
Paramore), of similar age. 

     The film opens with the return of Beth's younger sister Vicki (Kerry
Fox, who starred in Armstrong's _An Angel at My Table_), whose unruly red
hair suggests something of her impulsive personality. Vicki arrives at
Chez Nous after a long stay abroad. With no one to greet her, she wanders
through the rooms alone, wolfing down a hunk of the "welcome home" cake
and examining remnants of her past. When Beth gets home and the sisters
reunite, it's clear that their connection is intensely competitive and
mutually adoring. As J.P. observes, Beth uses Vicki as her "mirror." 

     The tensions among the three characters develop gradually. Beth is
increasingly frustrated with her inability to maintain Chez Nous' fragile
surface calm (J.P. says she's "got a mania for resolution"). But it's a
surface built on years of crossed emotional wires and tacit agreements to
look the other way. It's a surface that has settled into small flare-ups
and larger non-discussions. When Beth asks J.P. when they'll "make love
again," he tells her it's "not the right question." 

     Whatever the right question is, it remains unasked. As Vicki and
Annie practice making themselves up like "real women," it becomes clear
that all their roles are just slightly out of synch. Because the lack of
fit is so familiar, though, readjustment takes time. When Vicki tries to
write, she feels hopelessly inadequate by comparison to Beth. J.P., about
to go through the ritual of becoming an Australian citizen, feels
restless. 

     While an inevitable teen romance develops between Annie and Tim (a
more typical plot, here rendered secondary), the rest of the household
comes unhinged. Determined to set her own past in order, Beth decides to
take a vacation across the desert with her taciturn, cantankerous father
(Bill Hunter). The impossibility of her mission - to make peace with this
exacting man - makes even slight smiles or shared ice cream seem like
major accomplishments. Staying at motels and driving during the say, Beth
and her dad do come to a tenuous and largely unspoken understanding, even
as her relationship with J.P. grows more complicated. 

     The delicacy with which these intimate attachments unravel and reform
is unusual. Signalled by subtle shifts in perspective - J.P.'s glance at
Vicki across a room or a sudden droop in Beth's shoulders as she sees, for
the first time, her father's silent vulnerability - emotional revelations
seem almost accidental, unmeasured, and easily overlooked. The crisis
that's in the making reshapes all their lives, but the outcome is neither
happy nor tragic. Rather, the movie is about details, the neccessity of
familial fictions, and the costs of everyday exchanges.