To check out my published review of The Turning check out the April edition of Empire magazine Australia.
Daring, convicting and above all relateable, this adaption of Tim
Winton’s best-selling book of short stories is a thought-provoking and
important study of life, longing and discovery.
Split into seventeen sections, all of which have different directors
and casts – some without dialogue or narration – this may be the closest thing
we come to seeing the (unconformed) written word on screen. Through the
camera’s fluid motion we watch lives and the world unfold. The timeless themes
of loss, justice, good and evil, and awakening are evocatively and creatively
presented. There’s also a spiritual battle underlining the sections, something
which comes directly from Winton’s repertoire.
Particularly moving is Claire McCarthy’s The Turning, where an abused, raped and broken wife (a career-best
Rose Byrne) is led to Christ and finds healing through a chance meeting at a
caravan park with a gracious and “turned” woman (Miranda Otto).
It is a big ask of creator Robert Connelly (Balibo, The Bank) to
piece together all these stories over three hours, without a stringent
narrative to tie the ambiguity together, but it is this artistic freedom which
gives the production edge.
Like an art exhibition, different pieces will speak to different people. Watch and discuss.
9/10
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