South Solitary (M). Director: Shirley Barrett. Starring: Miranda Otto, Barry Otto, Rohan Nichol, Essie Davis, Marton Csokas, Annie Martin. 116 minutes
South Solitary is billed as a romance, but its first half might sit comfortably in boxes labelled 'psychological thriller' or 'black comedy'. The title refers to a lighthouse island, a lonely, stony protuberance in the path of the Roaring Forties. Here, isolation and the wild landscape seem prone to agitate the wild aspects of human nature.
To this place comes 35-year-old Meredith (Miranda Otto) and her uncle Wadsworth (Miranda's real-life father, Barry), who is the new lighthouse keeper. Ominously, we learn that Wadsworth's predecessor committed suicide on the job.
Meredith is a woman-child, gentle but easily manipulated. She approaches the island wide-eyed, clutching a pet lamb and smiling in wonder at the sheer beauty of her new home. But before she reaches South Solitary she is put upon by unkind forces. Two boys appear on the cliff and call for the boat to turn around and go home.
If this is a heavy-handed allegory for the experience of asylum seekers, it is not entirely out of place. Meredith seeks asylum from secret, personal horrors that lie in her wake. A fresh start represents a chance at solace, although she continues to be oppressed by the perennial belittlement of her loveless uncle.
The curdled milk of human unkindness flows readily upon the island. Meredith's beloved lamb is immediately co-opted by Nettie (Martin), the young daughter of the assistant keeper, Harry (Nichol). This could be seen as a simple act of generosity to a child, but it also hints at Meredith's pliability, which becomes important as the film progresses.
Harry's family, it turns out, believed he was next in line to become head keeper. His wife Alma (Davis) therefore resents Wadsworth, and takes this out on Meredith with scathing passive aggression. Meredith seems constantly under threat: even Alma and Harry's children (including the boys from the cliff) flit about like bedraggled rejects from The Village of the Damned (and Nettie seems a likely contender to become a future serial killer).
One of the film's most memorable scenes sees Alma interrogate Meredith about deeply private details from her painful past. Alma sits in smug judgment, utterly compassionless, openly contemptuous. Meredith, lacking the self-esteem to reject this unjustified attack — it's none of Alma's damn business, after all — is humiliated.
In this scene writer-director Barrett demonstrates an