Sometimes death can be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
Catherine (Anna Lise Phillips) returns to Australia after years abroad only to be confronted by her wilful mother, Katya (Anne Looby)... a ghost with attitude and a wardrobe to match.
Special Agent Matti
A good little Aussie movie about a woman, her boyfriend and her dead mother. Willfull is funny in parts, touching in others and generally bleak throughout. Like Till human voices wake us, redemption and understanding is found by the protagonist making their peace with the tormented dead, an option that is not open to most people and a warning not to leave arguments to fester with the people you love.
Never go to bed angry.
Willfull also uses the perennial favourite of wild mothers upsetting their staid daughters, a plot theme that is given a really good twist as it unfolds: embarrassment gives way to guilt to hatred to alienation. Add to that some seething resentment and a little bit of jealousy and you've got the makings of a story worth watching.
Even though the part was written with her in mind, Anne Looby plays Katya perfectly. She is mercurially, passionately exuberant, grand in the way only a few, rare women can be (think Mame with a dinky-di Aussie accent). Katya is also tormented by her own ghosts (or is that meta-ghosts, as she's a ghost herself?) and Anne brings out this "real" side of her personality as thoroughly as she does the vampy campy bits.
It's a good little Aussie movie with leanings toward the romantic comedy chick flick.
MA 15+ (Medium level sex scene)
96 minutes (1:36 hours)
Film: 29 August 2002
DVD rental: 19 March 2003
VHS rental: 19 March 2003