Worth: $17.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday
Intro:
… powerfully hopeful and surprisingly uplifting …
In 1988 Newcastle, P.E. teacher and closeted lesbian Jean finds her neatly reserved world unravelling as the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher becomes increasingly fervent in their anti-gay policies. When Lois (Lucy Halliday), the new girl at school, bumps into Jean in a lesbian bar, Jean’s carefully constructed walls start to crack as she’s forced to choose between self-protection and stepping up as the mentor Lois so desperately needs her to be.
Depressingly, this depiction of staunch traditionalists labelling the queer community as predatory to the “normal way of life” is just as relevant today is it was in 1988. The cruel debates Jean’s fellow teaching staff discuss casually over coffee sound eerily similar to the outlandish fearmongering we see in our own media, and as laws are passed in Thatcher’s parliament forbidding the “promotion” of homosexuality, it’s not the traditionalists whose way of life is being threatened.
Director Georgia Oakley’s feature debut is a profoundly moving depiction of one woman’s struggle to make the right decisions for herself and her own life, when everything around her feels monumentally political. Rosy McEwan gives a complex, nuanced performance, able to reflect the depth of Jean’s emotions through expression alone where her character’s own reservedness won’t allow speech. Jean is cautious, purposefully isolating herself from her coworkers, and living a half-life, at her most unguarded only when she’s entirely alone with her partner Viv (Kerrie Hayes). Viv in turn is a riot of emotion, lighting up every room with her magnetic presence and striking leather, a neon sign where Jean would rather exist in shadows.
Cinematographer Victor Seguin does a masterful job of playing up these parallels. Jean’s own palette of cold, hazy blues gradually begin to feel more and more isolating as the film progresses, an arctic chill set against the bright, warm tones of the 1980s. Still, blue though Jean may be, the film is a far cry from the stereotypical melancholy queer drama. Despite its politics, or perhaps because of them, this is a celebration of queer community and the strength to be found amongst your chosen family when society itself becomes stifling. Oakley isn’t preaching the virtues of coming out before you’re ready, there is no accusation of cowardice or judgement here, just one individual’s journey that is both powerfully hopeful and surprisingly uplifting.
