“I thought a big snail was sliding up my nightie.”
After watching director Jane Campion’s film Sweetie for the third time, I am more impressed than ever. The Piano is Campion’s more mainstream film, and some viewers may be disappointed in Sweetie.
It’s the tale of a dysfunctional Aussie family–Mum & Dad (Gordon and Flo) and their two daughters–Kay (Karen Colston) and Dawn (Genevieve Lemon). Kay, a nurse, is a very odd, quiet and withdrawn character. She’s terrified of trees and despised by her workmates. Kay and boyfriend, Louis, have serious problems, and Louis is mystified by Kay’s sudden recent withdrawal. But when Sweetie arrives on the scene, the root cause of Kay’s problem is suddenly clearer. Kay’s sister Dawn–also known as “Sweetie” is a perfect horror. Sweetie arrives announced at Kay’s house one day, breaks in, and makes herself quite at home. “You stopped taking your medication, didn’t you?” asks Kay in frustration, and apparently, Sweetie is unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Sweetie brings along her boyfriend/producer, Bob. Bob is apparently the only person left in the world who believes that Sweetie has talent. But he’s under the influence of illegal substances, so he’s hardly a reliable source. Sweetie is idolized by her dotty father, and she trades on a childhood skill of stepping off of a chair and tap-dancing. This is supposed to be the great talent that is going to get Sweetie a recording contract.
Sweetie’s behaviour may have drawn adoring crowds of relatives in her childhood, but now she’s delusional, and destructive. Meanwhile, Sweetie’s mother, Flo, unable to take the stress of living under Sweetie’s despotic rule, takes a job in the outback as a cook for a ranch full of Jackaroos.
Every family has a Sweetie. In this film, Sweetie is encouraged in her deviant behaviour by her father–note the bathtub scene. The film reminds me of a sentence from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina– “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Sweetie’s arrival has serious consequences for everyone, and her presence is sobering. A lifetime of doting parenting catches up with the characters in a catastrophic way. Louis has to take a long hard look at his relationship with Kay, and tells her “illusions don’t go away–they become more subtle.” As the film continues, many of the scenes take on a surreal quality and echo the bizarre nature of life with Sweetie. Genevieve Lemon as Sweetie really steals the film with an incredible performance.
