Australian black-comedy, Audrey tells the rebellious teenager story, from the point of view of her fed up mother, Ronnie.
Ronnie Lipsick (Jackie van Beek) tries desperately to mould her seventeen year old daughter Audrey (Josephine Blazier) into the successful actress she never was, resentful of how parenthood sabotaged her burgeoning career in the Australian soaps. Meanwhile younger daughter Norah (Hannah Diviney) feels rejected by her mother’s obsession with Audrey, and neglected husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) finds himself lusting for a Christian porn director.
When Audrey falls suddenly into a coma, the family is brought together, only to come to the blaring realisation that they all like each other a lot more without Audrey in the picture at all.
Now free from the full-time job that was ‘making Audrey a star’, Ronnie takes it upon herself to attend the prestigious acting course Audrey’s just been accepted to, impersonating the seventeen year old. Now, Ronnie can reclaim her destiny for fame that was snatched from her by the cruel hands of motherhood.
Norah, who has cerebral palsy, is finally given the chance to start competitive fencing, and starts a romance with Audrey’s boyfriend Max (a romance which is definitely not related to Max’s reliance on Norah’s medication, which Audrey had been selling to him). Cormack rekindles his romance with Ronnie – and finds he has a real knack for directing!
United together, the family is refreshed and functioning. Until, of course, Audrey wakes up.
This film played its jokes with a straight face, but the audience was alive with laughter from the very beginning. The ensemble of quirky characters carried its absurd plot. While some narrative beats were hard pills to swallow (such as, exactly how Audrey fell into a coma… and that entire Medea scene towards the end) its contemporary sensibility brought a refreshing comedic tone to the family drama.
Visually, this film evoked a sun-baked Aussie nostalgia; pinks, oranges, blues. It wore the look and feel of a coming-of-age, which in some ways it almost was – for Norah, for Audrey, and in Ronnie’s mind’s eye as she passed for seventeen, perhaps her too!
Audrey is the directorial debut of Australian writer/director Natalie Bailey. Written by Lou Sanz, and supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Audrey had its Australian premiere at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival.
by Maddison Stephens
Audrey
MIFF