Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #229: A Month of Sundays (2015).

 

Frank Mollard (Anthony LaPaglia) is a Sydney real estate agent in a mid-life crisis. In his case, that means struggling to recover from his divorce from Wendy (Justine Clarke) and bond with their son Frank, Jr. (Indiana Crowther), and even during a property boom he can't sell a house to save his life. That last problem may also be why his boss Phillip Lang (John Clarke) constantly joins him at work. Then one night, to throw an added spanner in the works, Frank receives a call from an elderly woman who instantly reminds him of his recently deceased mother, so much so that he confuses her for his mum. Upon realising she's not his mother, he chooses to meet her in person anyway and she turns out to be Sarah (Julia Blake), a retired widower whose real son Stuart (Terence Crawford) is an army officer. Over several meetings with Sarah, Frank gradually learns how to manage and mend his relationships with his family, his past and his work.

I feel quite strangely about A Month of Sundays. Writer-director Matthew Saville tries here to tell a deceptively straightforward but ultimately rather convoluted and juxtaposing story and that's always an approach I'm intrigued to see unfold, but this time not all the plot lines fully mesh. They all make sense and connect, but they just don't all exactly reflect or mirror the others as much as maybe they should. However, thematically it did still get through to me, and it offers a fairly refined and realistic portrait of contemporary Aussie suburbia.

LaPaglia is fine in the lead, although it's a role I've seen him play several times before, and I could actually say as much about both Clarkes, funnily enough. The best performance is easily Blake's; this Australian screen (and stage) veteran effortlessly projects a grandmotherly warmth and sophistication, with a subtle determination and a slightly troubled secretiveness just under the boilerplate. She's flawless in the role.

So in summary, A Month of Sundays treads narrative territory I've seen explored more boldly and freshly, but it does offer some thematic depth and truth to mull over.