Review of Sweetie (1989) by Becca D — 06 Aug 2010

A difficult and somewhat disturbing film that explores the troubled relationship between two very different sisters. Dawn (Genevieve Lemon), known to her family as Sweetie, is a blowzy, overweight woman with serious mental health issues and delusions of grandeur who shows up at her sister's with a producer/boyfriend in tow.

Kay (Karen Colston) is the other sister, a shy, socially awkward young woman who has managed to snare a steady boyfriend in the handsome Louis (Tom Lycos). Their father (Michael Lake) moves in as well, when his wife, the girls' mother, leaves him, further complicating the living arrangements.

The story seemed a bit disjointed at times, with unexplained gaps making it difficult to piece together the narrative into a coherent whole. But, it is director Campion's first feature film, with a limited budget, and shows the promise of her later films.

As an audience, we are inexorably drawn into the downward spiral as this fragile family unit fractures and falls apart. Lemon and Colston were totally believable as the sisters caught in a love-hate relationship, and completely unable to relate to each other beyond a most juvenile level.

And Lake was spot-on as the father so blinded by his love for his daughter that e could not see how truly damaged she was. Campion has proved herself a master at depicting the family dynamic in tortured situations, and this film is part of that legacy.