Starring: Rachael Blake, Susie Porter, Vince Colosimo, Martin Sacks, Susan Prior, Megan Dale, Bridget Webb, Will Beasley
Distributor: Other
Runtime: 95 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2018
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The Second is not necessarily an enticing title for an audience. However, it does have meaning for the plot which concerns an author who was published her first book, an erotic memoir, and is now working on the second, comment being made about the syndrome for the writing of a second novel, and its being so difficult to write in comparison with the first.
But, we are soon alerted that there is more than one element of complexity in this plot. The author is seen being interviewed, stylishly dressed, impeccable manner, agreeable but aloof, the presumption being that this is a television interview. She is being asked about her book, whether it is completely autobiographical, whether it is accurate – and even whether it is true.
The writer (all the characters owner designated by a title rather than a personal name) is played with a mixture of playfulness and disdain by Rachael Blake. She is in the company of the publisher, Vince Colosimo (wearing glasses and quite different from many gangsters he has played on screen and television). They are travelling to and elaborate mansion in the middle of the bush owned by the writer’s father, an author, now dead. (And the film was shot in the west Darling Downs in and around Dalby and other towns.).
The couple are having an affair, he rather laid-back and urging her on because of financial difficulties, she seen at a computer, writing but having blocks. The complication is that her friend from the past, played by Susie Porter, turns up, partly takes over, relies on the past friendship with the writer when they were girls (shown in quite a number of flashbacks which gradually build up the story of the girls at 14, a young boy attracted to them, his death and the consequences). Also in the vicinity is a sullen tractor driver (Martin Sacks), the brother of the dead boy who seems to threaten the publisher.
The audience has to be on the alert, not only for the flashbacks, but, it would seem, after the publication of The Second, a lot of flash forwards. And then the question arises, and the writer vocalises, what is she actually writing while the audience sees particular incidents that she describes. So What is actually happening in reality and what is dramatisation of the novel that is being written.
In fact, it becomes quite melodramatic, inconsistencies in the characters of the two women, the bewilderment of the publisher, his becoming a target, the ambiguous role of the neighbour…
So, this is an adult drama about relationships, an adult drama about writing and career as well as publishing, and tantalising questions about memoirs, biographies, descriptions of crimes, what is reality and what is invention, the nature of fiction.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and
Broadcasting
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