David O'ConnellThe Eye of the Storm
September 8th 2011 03:24
Patrick White’s novel The Eye of the Storm has made a clunky transition to the big screen thanks to the perhaps too literal translation by screenwriter Judy Morris. It’s a major disappointment considering the assembled talent. This is director Fred Schepisi’s first film on home soil since 1988's Evil Angels. Industry stalwarts Geoffrey Ruth and Judy Davis were both coaxed back to star, whilst Charlotte Rampling was drafted in to take the lead role of Elizabeth Hunter, a dying Sydney matriarch who summons her family to her bedside for the final chapter of her existence.
Her daughter Dorothy (Davis), who married into French royalty, and son Basil (Rush), a feted actor with a knighthood attached to his name, sweep in from overseas to fulfil their duties. But there’s very little evidence of love in this family, regardless of the grand, melodramatic gestures of Elizabeth who tries to colour the memories of all around her. They all do a decent job helping to erect a façade that might hold in place until her life enters its final phase. But eventually the toxin seeps through the cracks, making for an uncomfortable few days; simultaneously, clarifying flashbacks provide further illustrations of how this family tree was poisoned at the root.
It’s the lack of naturalism that eventually kills The Eye of the Storm (2011); an arch theatricality in the delivery that fends off any genuine emotional entanglement we might have with these people. None of them feel real, not in the way we recognise people from our own lives. Grandiloquent posturing and rapturous wordy monologues become the norm, especially for Rampling’s narcissistic Elizabeth. Her espousals of love are as flagrantly false as her anachronistic surrounds, reeking of the dying maiden within their grasp.
Alexandra Schepisi, as one of Elizabeth's staff members trying to manipulate her way into Basil's life, gives the best performance of the film. Rush and Davis are fine, if never believable as siblings. They share one great moment of pained reflection that finally – like nothing else in the film – hits a recognisable nerve in surveying the emotional battlefield of their shared pasts. But it’s too late in the game, with salvation well out of reach by then. The Eye of the Storm is a conclusive failure, its title both a description of a telling meteorological event and a metaphor that wastes it power to affect us on any meaningful level. It’s all a bit of a bore really.
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