Judy Davis stars as a backup singer to an Elvis Presley impersonator, who after being sacked by the imitation Man From Memphis rents a seaside trailer home by sheer chance right next door to the teenage daughter she abandoned as a baby. Once past that massive coincidence the story settles into a promising drama about a young girl's dawning awareness of her own identity, but the script reads too often like the unembellished daydreams of an adolescent orphan, wavering between sensitivity and self pity, and what should have been the emotional high points are smothered under some of the most portentous music in recent memory. In the end the scenario doesn't fully deliver on its potential, but scene for scene the film is certainly worth watching, and the characters are all rendered with sympathy, even in their less flattering moments. It may not represent a step forward in the careers of either Davis or director Gillian Armstrong, but it's nevertheless encouraging to still see movies being made Down Under that don't look like they've been produced by the Australian Tourist Council.
