ON SCREEN: Two Friends
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eye WEEKLY July 25, 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
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ON SCREEN ON SCREEN
TWO FRIENDS
Starring Emma Coles and Kris Bidenko. Screenplay by Helen Garner.
Directed by Jane Campion. July 26-Aug. 1 at Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor
St. W. 532-6677; Aug. 2-6 at Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles Ave. 531-
9959.
(ee of 5 eyes)
by
Gemma Files
Whenever a director becomes even marginally popular, the question of
whether or not to showcase his or her earlier work arises. In the case
of acclaimed New Zealand director Jane Campion (The Piano) and her
little-seen first feature film Two Friends, the answer to said
question is both yes and no. Yes because of its genuine psychological
insight and sharp observational skills, and no because of subject
matter which ends up being more boring than it has to be.
Originally produced for Australian TV, Two Friends prefigures the
themes of later Campion work like Sweetie and An Angel At My Table by
taking us on a chronologically inverted tour of the ruined bond
between Louise (Emma Coles) and Kelly (Kris Bidenko), inseparable
mates whose lives begin to diverge down markedly dissimilar paths
after they're sent to different high schools. When the film opens,
sexy Kelly has become a (possibly) drug-addled proto-punk; staid
Louise remains a conscientious, mildly boring grind whose inability to
understand what Kelly is going through leads her to callously label
her "scarcely a person any more."
Louise's smart and complicated mother Janet (Kris McQuage) reckons
herself mildly responsible for not doing more on Kelly's behalf, but
Campion and screenwriter Helen Garner assign no particular blame for
Kelly's increasing inability to deal with the pressures of her life,
thus avoiding the trap of easy moral answers. Although both girls
share a background of divorce and barely-middle-class social
instability, only Kelly cracks when placed on the spot.
In the final analysis, Two Friends falls shy of being interesting
enough to warrant a transfer from the small to the silver screen,
mainly because the kids are both so bland to begin with that Campion's
matter-of-fact tone makes this one of those instances in which
suffering does not automatically render a character worth watching.
There are also technical problems. The image looks grainy, blown-up
and washed-up, and the muddy soundtrack makes it twice as difficult as
it should be to follow the heavily accented action. Strictly for
Campion purists, therefore.
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