South Solitary

South Solitary is an Australian romantic-drama set in 1927 and is the first film written and directed by Shirley Barrett. Miranda Otto plays Meredith Appleton the softly-spoken, easily 'lead astray' single woman who accompanies her uncle (who in reality is her father, Aussie star Barry Otto) to South Solitary, an extremely isolated island off the coast of Australia.
Her uncle George Wadsworth, a determined and difficult personality is the Head Lighthouse Keeper, replacing the last who commited suicide. Wadsworth is brilliant, in that he is for the audience easy to dislike; complaining about everything, treating Meredith with distain at times and constantl y giving the fellow lightkeepers a hard time.
Apart from making her uncle's cups of tea and dinner Meredith is left to her own devices, trying desperately to befriend the two other lighthouse keepers and the family that inhabit the island. "I must try to remain cheerful" she tells herself in the opening scene, but this prooves difficult.
The role of naive Appleton suits Otto and her cute pale little face. As does the role of surly, war veteran Mr.Fleet suit Marton Csokas. However the relationship that (very) slowly blossoms between the two is not overly convincing.
The film's scenery is both bleak and beautiful simulatenously. The script is at times funny and sweet, at othertimes the humour just misses slightly. While it was a sweet film, perhaps 20 minutes or so less would have made it more enjoyable. For the last 20 minutes the audience appeared somewhat restless and a few looked at their watches. The scenery photography is superb, the acting great but at times the script was a little bland.
2 and a half out of 5.

To be released the 29th of July.
Review by Annie Mullen.