Cate Blanchett
Sister Eileen
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Drama
In 1940s Australia, a nine year old aboriginal orphan arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun, and his presence disturbs its delicately balanced world.
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| Homepage | https://beacons.page/thenewboy |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2023-07-06 |
| Runtime | 1h 36m |
| Directors | Warwick Thornton, Warwick Thornton, James Dubay, Brad Lanyon, Kate Larmer |
| Producers | Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton, Georgina Pym, Kath Shelper, Lorenzo De Maio, Coco Francini, Gretel Packer |
| Writer | Warwick Thornton |
Set against a backdrop of a strongly colonial and white Australia, we are rather violently introduced to a young, blonde, Aboriginal lad (Aswan Reid) who is conked out by a boomerang and awakens to find himself in the care of "Sister Eileen" (Cate Blanchett) and "Sister Mum" (Deborah Mailman) at a remote orphanage. She is pretty devout and he is very much in tune with nature - both people of faith, but not the same kind. The arrival of a large wooden crucifix to top their altar seems to focus both of them on what now becomes a rather dry and simplistic tale of spirituality. Reid does come across well. There is a spontaneity and naturalness to his performance, but Blanchett over-eggs just about all of the rest of it. She does this type of role well - shorn hair, manic eyes, slightly eccentric characterisation - but here there's just not enough story for her (or us) to get the teeth into. I got the sense that there was something almost "Oliver Twist" about the lad. Blonde? Sent away? Did he have a secret identity? That's not the story, though - and when he suffers his own rather personal misfortune at the end, I felt a rather overwhelming dislike of "Eileen" and her superstition-ridden church. Too be fair, this isn't a film that doesn't provoke a response - but with sparse dialogue and little character development, it's not really much more than a beautifully photographed vehicle for Blanchett to indulge herself and for Reid to be a boy facing a confusing future.
— CinemaSerf