Starring: Eliza Scanlen, Michelle Lotters, Toby Wallace, Ben Mendelsohn, and Esse Davis
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 118 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2020
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This Australian drama-comedy tells the story of a terminally ill young girl who falls in love with a small-time drug dealer. It is the debut full-length movie feature for female Director, Shannon Murphy, and is based on a screenplay written by Rita Kalnejais, which is in turn based on Kalnejais’ 2012 stage play of the same name.
Toby Wallace was awarded the Best Young Actor at the 76th Venice International Film Festival in 2019 for his interpretation of the role of Moses, the drug dealer, who wins the heart of the young girls. The film won the SIGNIS Award at the same festival.
Milla (Eliza Scanlen) is a school girl of 16 years, who is terminally ill with cancer. While waiting for the arrival of a train on Platform 4, she contemplates suicide, when a young man called Moses (Toby Wallace), suddenly slams his body physically into her. Shocked, she has a nose bleed, and he bends down to assist. She is intrigued and overwhelmed by his actions.
After a day with him, Milla brings Moses home to dinner with her well-to-do parents, Henry (Ben Mendelsohn) and Anna (Essie Davis), who have deep personal problems – sexual, and otherwise. Their antipathy to Moses, who is a 23-year-old drug dealer, turns Milla initially against them. Milla defends Moses, even when he is caught stealing Anna’s pills, which Henry has prescribed for her.
The film is an honest portrayal of first love, and of a flawed parental response to a difficult and challenging child, who desperately needs love. Four players in particular are outstanding. Henry and Anna know that Milla’s life is coming to a close, and they don’t want to deny her feelings for a person she likes, but they are traumatised by their daughter’s attachment to a drug dealer. Milla is exceptionally needy, and Moses can’t understand why Milla is so attached to him.
The acting of Eliza Scanlen and Toby Wallace stands out. Scanlen’s acting as a Milla is exceptional: she nails the emotions of despair, desperation, anger, happiness, and love. A magnetic Toby Wallace shows why Milla stays so attached – Moses provides Milla with a fantasy escape from unhappiness, and he is the wild instrument of her re-engagement with the world.
Milla’s cancer never extinguishes the sparks of humour and surprise that infuse what happens. The movie is an emotional-maturity story that tries to respect its characters. It shows Moses, who is “not ready to be functional”, helping Anna cope with a dying daughter by giving her some of his own tablets, when he knows she is drug-addicted. Everyone understands that Milla is trying to face a world she never will confront as an adult. The themes addressed by the film are particularly strong. The movie deals with death, child-dependency, an unexpected request by Milla to Moses to end her life, first love, parental agony and caring, and emotional growth amidst attempts to cope. The movie impacts on viewers’ emotions at different levels, and it stays in the mind well after the final credits have rolled. It is a very impressive directorial debut for Shannon Murphy.
There have been a number of good movies about children dying of cancer, like “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” (2015), but this movie is different, and it is a tribute to Australian movie-making that it is so. Amidst the pain, suffering, resentment, and love that it shows, the film manages to foster courage and hope. Ben and Annie come to think that Moses may be Milla’s route to happiness, even though they know their daughter’s attachment is morally wrong, which the film makes clear.
This is a commanding movie in acting, direction, scripting, and photography. There is a Jane Campion look to it that is full of the unexpected. Its final scenes are especially emotionally wrenching, and it indicates in a powerful way the complexity of flawed people trying to cope with profound stress. The film richly deserves the international awards it has received.
Peter W Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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