Shadows on the Wall

Jimpa

dir Sophie Hyde
scr Matthew Cormack, Sophie Hyde
prd Liam Heyen, Bryan Mason, Sophie Hyde, Marleen Slot
with Olivia Colman, Aud Mason-Hyde, John Lithgow, Daniel Henshall, Kate Box, Eamon Farren, Zoe Love Smith, Hans Kesting, Frank Saunders, Erle de Lanooi, Deborah Kennedy, Bryn Chapman Parish
release US 6.Feb.26
25/Australia 1h53

SUNDANCE FILM FEST

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With an unusually intimate approach, director Sophie Hyde explores issues of gender and sexuality through the prism of family relationships. The script is packed with beefy conversations, which sometimes makes the film feel like a stage play. This gives this sometimes mopey tale a complexity that's bracingly provocative, helping it become a smart and thoughtful coming-of-age story, mingling emotive parent-child drama with a strong dose of humour.

In Adelaide, actor-filmmaker Hannah (Colman) is taken aback when her nonbinary 16-year-old Frances (Mason-Hyde) asks to move to Amsterdam to live with Hannah's gay father Jim (Lithgow), whom they call Jimpa, to explore life in an LGBTQ-friendly culture. So the family travels to Europe. Hannah and her husband Harry (Henshall) are secretly working on a film about the unusually amicable way her mother (Kennedy) dealt with Jim's homosexuality. And Frances soaks in the big-city vibe, meeting Jimpa's old-school gay biddies while also navigating a group of gender-queer teens and falling for polyamorous Isa (Smith).

While the film is a little overlong and downbeat, it continually circles around intriguing ideas and resonant themes that catch the imagination. Frances embraces compersion, wanting the person they love to be happy and fulfilled. This echoes through story strands that involve a number of characters. Jim notes that back when he was a teen he didn't have any words to describe how he felt, and Frances might have too many words.

Matching the grounded tone, performances are nicely understated, with ripples of emotion continually running through them. Colman brings her usual offhanded honesty to the role, as Hannah strives to maintain an open mind about those closest to her, and about herself. Lithgow offers some snappy energy as the witty and rather tactless Jim. He's also a survivor who has been through the wars of the Aids epidemic and sees hope for the future. And at the centre, the likeable Mason-Hyde offers truthful observations and reactions.

This is clearly a very personal film for Hyde, and it touches knowingly on generational ideas about labels, including how younger people reject the old classifications for definitions that are both looser and more specific. The point is that they have found a way to be truly themselves rather than forcing themselves into the established moulds. So the film becomes a lovely reminder that real life doesn't always fit into our idea of how things should be.

themes, language, sexuality 29.Jan.26

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