''Soft Fruit'' is a 1999
comedy drama
Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...
film about a dying mother and her children who come together to fulfill her last wishes. It is an Australian American co-production produced by New Zealand filmmaker
Jane Campion
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and ''The Power of the Dog (film), The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for ...
and directed by Christina Andreef.
Plot
Four adult children reconvene in the steel-town of
Port Kembla when their mother Patsy becomes terminally ill. The family includes sisters Josie, Nadia, and Vera, lone son Bo, and father Vic. It is the first time in eight years that all of the family has been under the same roof. Josie, herself a mother, is coming from
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
in the U.S., while ex-con Bo is coming from prison. Nadia is having an affair with her ex-husband, and Vera is the shy one of the family.
Cast
*
Jeanie Drynan as Patsy Haft
*
Russell Dykstra as Bo
*
Linal Haft as Vic
*
Genevieve Lemon as Josie
*
Sacha Horler as Nadia
*Alicia Talbot as Vera
Production
On the themes of the film, Andreef said:
As you grow older, it's so difficult to stay in relationship with your adult brothers and sisters. When you get into your thirties and forties, paths are dividing. ''Soft Fruit'' is about that sibling struggle. You think you don't care when you have a fight and fall out. Someone is always on the outer. It's about that struggle to get back on the inner, on the inside.
Box office
''Soft Fruit'' grossed $598,704 at the box office in Australia.
Critical reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, ''Soft Fruit'' has an approval rating of 64% based on 14 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Critics say that while ''Soft Fruit'' might be difficult to watch -- dealing as it is with terminal illness -- it is an emotionally genuine, warm film. The ensemble cast are also praised for their excellent portrayals of a family."
A.O. Scott of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote, "''Soft Fruit'' shares with ''
Sweetie'', Ms. Campion's 1989 study of domestic monstrosity, as well as with such provincial antipodal slice-of-life comic melodramas as ''
Muriel's Wedding
''Muriel's Wedding'' is a 1994 comedy-drama film written and directed by P.J. Hogan. The film, which stars Toni Collette, Bill Hunter and Rachel Griffiths, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambition is to have a glamorous wedding ...
'', a commitment to showing human beings as they are, which is often highly unpleasant."
He added, "The general talent and dedication of the ensemble mitigate the script's occasional lapses into sentimentality and noisy confrontation…''Soft Fruit'' belongs, however, to the divine Ms. Drynan, who plays a dying, unfulfilled, ordinary woman without embellishment or overstatement but with mischievous reserve and surprising sensuality. Patsy is simultaneously dying and coming alive for the first time."
[
]
Awards and nominations
Australian Film Institute Awards 1999
See also
*Cinema of Australia
The cinema of Australia began with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recogni ...
References
External links
*
*{{Rotten Tomatoes, soft_fruit, Soft Fruit
''Soft Fruit''
at Oz Movies
Australian drama films
1999 films
1999 independent films
Fox Searchlight Pictures films
1990s English-language films
1990s Australian films
Films scored by Antony Partos
English-language independent films