biopics are tricky. they can go on and on, and always teeter on the edge of lacking a narrative focus. life, of course, has no narrative focus whatsoever, which is why we invented stories. this is a story of personal and familial disintegration set in the 40s or 50s on the australian frontier. the protagonists are middle european immigrants. romulus, playes by eric bana, is a loving father and doting husband with a boyish face and an appropriately indomitable work ethic. he’s a generous and forgiving man who always does the right thing and will captivate you. franka potente plays his wayward wife, a woman who cannot stay away from relationship with other men but is welcomed at the farm with open arms whenever she makes her way back. raimond is their only son, a 9 year old with blue eyes and a terribly earnest-sweet face whom the first-time director chose wisely to make the moral and psychological center of the film. the actor is terrific. he portrays the easy joyfulness and the dead seriousness of childhood with heartbreaking facility.
raimond’s childhood is marred by tragedy after tragedy. he is a child who, like many children, lives with constant loss. at one point he is left to live alone at the farm. on the frontiers the colors are beiges, grays, and browns. people eat small portions of soup after a long day of work (eric bana is a bit too buff for such a trying life). the steady accumulation of tragedies leaves him dried eyed and quite capable of sleeping soundly at night (most children will sleep soundly at night through tragedies), but when he is faced with the task of shooting a rabbit, raimond breaks down. all the grief of his life comes crashing down on him. little children are not meant to kill bunnies.
i found myself identifying powerfully with raimond. i think i liked his courage. simon tells me that ray gaita, the real-life grown up who wrote the story, was professor of philosophy at university college london when he was doing his m. phil. he realized this only when the final credits rolled. i felt an even greater affection for little raimond, who went on to be a philosopher. how appropriate.
the representation of the process that leads people to irresistible, inexorable mental breakdown is also fine. sometimes only the little ones survive the hardships of life. how they fare once they stop being little is, of course, the million dollar question.