Peaches (2005)

Very Cool!!!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I wonder what people will make of Peaches, the Australian Craig Monahan film, in the far future? Will they look back at it as an accurate capturing of times gone by as the naivety and bullish nature of youth back in the day played out in a lonely and frustratingly bland Australian town? Only time will tell but what's quite interesting, is the look at times gone by that are focused on within this very film; a series of flashbacks to the 1980s in which thirty something adults are carefree and relaxed in their lives but still crave something a little more. The film is of the ordinary sort; not especially exciting but trying desperately hard to study something: dreams, ambitions, loss and relationships with those 'higher' than you in the home and work-place. Sure, it carries that tetchy little independent 'feel' these films have and it was written by someone called Sue Smith, an individual who seems to have worked a lot in television before attempting this project and there you have Peaches' chief bane: a steady, unspectacular piece that'll look great on TV or as a made for TV piece.I wonder how much of this is based on true events? OK, maybe a car crash in which a pregnant mother is killed but her baby is born and is then raised by someone else is unlikely but the study, I think, carries a certain personal element. It's here that perhaps the author is distinguishing the differences between the carefree attitudes of youth in a younger, more immature aunt Jude (McKenzie) when compared to the elder, more knowledgeable Jude. This transition, of course, occurs when the car carrying Steph's (Lung) parents crashes and kills them and wouldn't you know – Steph grows up to be a young adult herself and begins in similar spirit to what Jude once was. Maybe it is an author recollection; a story about how being young and free-spirited with big dreams is fine, but suffering a nasty event; acknowledging it and then moving on, indeed 'growing up', is the next phase and is just as important as enjoying your younger days.In fact the early focuses of Steph reveal a slightly damaged psychosis. As a character, she keeps baby crayon drawings of her decapitated mother on her bedroom wall; cannot read too well; is a complete social misfit and lies to her aunt Jude in an unflinching and very thorough manner, when talking about how she got home one night. But the film is about Steph's maturity, put across via several flashbacks that are born out of the reading of Steph's mother's old diary that she kept up until that fateful night. What's key here is perspective. Aunt Jude can talk all she wants about how big and in charge she is, but Steph's first hand recounting of her aunt is played out through the filter that is her own mother's notes, observations and musings on all things around her – including Jude herself.I think the film was aiming for most any of the flashbacks to act as some sort of tragic reminder of small town life, perhaps globally, perhaps purely in Australia. There is a lot of talk of moving away, indeed Jude has dreams of going to Queensland in which the chief lure seems to be nude beaches. But it's all academic because the present day equilibrium puts pay to most of the opportunists banter and acts as a reasonably sad reminder of what's to come. Tied in amidst all of this coming-of-age stuff and the deconstructing of parental figures is the look at redundancy. Hugo Weaving, proving he hasn't forgotten his roots what with him already breaking Hollywood when this was made, acts as a foreman at a local canning factory for a product that is the film's title: Peaches.The fact this is evident could very well mean what the visualisation of the product actually is: the failing to pack and produce, the halting of the assembly line. The Peaches of the title could be seen as a metaphor for the lives of these people in the small town. The fact that the wrapping up or protection of said items is to cease as jobs and the world around them dries up forces a more vulnerable nature to the items in question. This is played off of the fact Steph's reading of her mother's diary helps dispel any aura her aunt may carry as she learns more and more of a relationship she undertook with Weaving's cannery foreman, named Alan. This might prevent Jude from being as imposing as she once was and thus; the protection and influence to 'mature' as soon as possible, without any tragic car crash event seemingly imminent, is somewhat lost. It is an allegory running parallel with the fragile and innocent item that is the peach loosing its protective casing in the form of a can as human influence slips away.Peaches is slow and concentrated but there's enough going on to recommend it. A re-occurring question is something along the lines of "what does the diary say?" in terms of characters voicing concerns and it's poignant that it is, as it's a chief ingredient to the film's study. Someone's diary and a load of peaches: how many others film can lay claim that these two types of items are the nucleus of the film's study of small town Australian life? Not many, but Sue Smith and Craig Monahan can claim their film is.

Ignoring (if possible) the tediously gratuitous marijuana smoking (which seems to be mandatory in Australian government-funded films) the cast of this movie gives a reasonably credible performance. That's a far as it goes. The rest is simply awful. The plot's overburdened with "wow" symbolisms which are meant to look good on film but go nowhere. A gross example is the giant peach float, obviously left over from a town parade and donated by the local canning factory. It was just too tempting to waste what was hopefully a free, but nevertheless irrelevant, prop! The peach is given a cursory, unexplained wash-down at one stage but that's where it ends.Similarly, the contrived "black spot" road sign where Steph's parents were killed, is intended to symbolize the eventual escape from her past, but her escape to what? She's had a pretty good deal where she was, especially considering her visual disability and the unending, loving patience and care of her understanding young female guardian.The Guinness' prize for corny melodrama, however, goes to the characterization of Alan. Alan successfully aspires to the noble role of trade union shop steward but "rats" on his fellow workers by becoming a supervisor for a wicked multi-national - hiss! hiss! As a supervisor, Alan performs the boss' villainous dirty work. He implements redundancies until, surprise, surprise, the whole plant is closed and Alan himself is left as a pathetic, unemployed failure. No cliché-free zones here, mate! Not only this, but Alan also loses the seductive Steph from the most unlikely relationship you'd encounter. If you think the plot is melodramatic and didactic, don't ask about detail. What's the significance of the shaving cream on Steph's seductive leg? Why doesn't the hotel, where the couple makes love, eventually twig that someone's gaining illegal entry to one of its grandest bedrooms and, among other pandemoniums, the sheets are regularly soiled - quite spectacularly on one occasion. Summing this movie up in one word: Avoid, Avoid, Avoid.

This story is beautifully acted. It is both sad and heartwarming about a young girl's journey to discover where she has come from and where she is going. Stephanie was adopted by her mother's best friend after her mother and father were killed in a car crash, and ever since she has been labeled the 'miracle baby', she is dyslexic and is finding life a bit tough. Her findings along the way affect those closest around her. Her relationship with her guardian and her guardian's ex boyfriend are handled very delicately and sensitively, and the whole of the supporting cast are genuine, 3 dimensional and believable. Set around a peach canning factory in small town Australia, this is a warm gentle, erotic film, and leaves you with a pleasant feeling when the credits close. After reading some of the other rather shallow comments about Hugo Weaving, I would like to add that I think he was brilliantly cast, and was extremely sexy. No, he is not Brad Pitt, but that doesn't mean that he isn't attractive.

Peaches is truly a marvelous film. I write this to refute a review from someone called 'Auscrit', that has appeared on this site. First of all the idea that either Monahans first film 'The Interview' is somehow TV is an extraordinary statement. Here is a film that has been significantly praised around the world as is simply one of the best Australian Films ever made. It fully deserved to win best picture. Peaches is a brave, bold and courageous departure. For me it works on every level and I have now seen it twice. Monahan is a filmmaker who is demonstrating great skill and incredible sensitivity. For 'Auscrit' to make the comment that it is another TV movie etc and that Hugo Weaving is no good simply does not 'get' the film. Or more particularly does not want to get it. Frankly it is the sort of comment that one expects from either another filmmaker who is jealous or bitter or both. Or someone from inside the industry either distribution, exhibition or bureaucracy. Your average punter, I have found just does not write comments like that. I have noticed other comments on the site and reference to the film Sommersault. One has to wonder what people think they are looking at. Unfortunately in Australia at the time SS was released the push was, if you did not like it then there was something wrong with you not the film. This manipulation of the media is pretty common down under. The reality is the only similarity between the two films are that they are rights of passage films. Unfortunately for me SS is a film about nothing, that could have been told in 15 minutes. I see it as a one dimensional film about anxiety. Peaches in comparison is a master piece. Personally I cannot wait to what Monahan does next as he is clearly way ahead of any of his contemporaries when it comes to cinema. In conclusion if the film does not win all at this years AFI's and IF awards, then it is a rigged game. As for Auscrit, please find something more constructive do with your time