Film Reviews

The Tree

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg
• Details: Australia / 100mins (PG)

If director Julie Bertuccelli was more subtle with her metaphors (a marvellous Moreton Bay Fig dominates every aspect of the story), The Tree could have pulled through its murky moments. But there isn't enough going on to keep interest levels up.
Dawn O'Neill (Gainsbourg) and hubby Peter (Aden Young) have moved their house deep into the outback and have settled it under the shade of a glorious tree. However, when Peter suffers a heart attack, Dawn succumbs to depression and struggles to take care of her four children. Little Simone (Davies) is convinced that Peter's spirit is in the tree, whose roots are now are extending under the house and causing structural havoc. When Dawn embarks on a romance with plumber George (Csokas), the tree has something to say about it...
Adapted from Judy Pascoe's novel Our Father Who Art In The Tree, Bertuccelli's film veers from subtle sentimentality to high melodrama. Before the close, the latter wins hands down. The domination of the tree - both visually and figuratively - is hard to ignore. Bertuccelli understands how beautiful it is to look at and gives the viewer, when she isn't shooting lovely sunsets and scenery, an eyeful at every opportunity. But it's not there to be just ornamentation. In a pathetic fallacy sense, the tree can mimic what the characters are feeling and can object: when Dawn flirts with the idea of dating George, a branch collapses on the house tearing the wall of her bedroom down; when she and George make love, they come to find that tree has blossomed with flowers but its roots have made the house unliveable. All this is interesting and cute.
There just isn't enough happening, though. Gainsbourg's Dawn isn't defined enough to keep interest in her overcoming of her depression high. Gainsbourg herself seems unsure how to play Dawn: depressed, confused, scared and hopeful must have been the motivation, but it's difficult to pull off those diverse emotions and it leaves Gainsbourg in no man's land. Morgana Davies is a real find, however. It's her Simone that keeps the movie ticking over; the sadness at the loss of her dad, whom she reckons was his favourite, and her determination to keep the tree when the neighbours insist on tearing it down keeps some scenes emotionally charged.
It's such a shame that energy didn't leak into other areas of the film.

Review by Gavin Burke