Have had a brief cinema break for reasons too boring to explain I'm back and yesterday I did a double bill starting with Oranges and Sunshine.
This is the true story of English social worker Margaret Humphreys who back in the 1980s was approached by an Australian woman seeking help in finding her real parents. Margaret agrees to help and what she discovers opens a can of worms for the British and Australian governments.
It turns out that thousands of English children in care during the 50s, 60s and 70s were essentially deported, without their parents knowledge, to Australia and put into orphanages some of which were run by monks where abuse was rife.
Margaret, played with great sensitivity and subtlety by Emily Watson is an incredible character, fighting the two Governments for recognition of what they did and coming under increasing abuse and threats herself from friends and supporters of the Christian Brothers who are naturally unhappy about the less than idylic stories emerging.
There is great support from the likes of Hugo Weaving and Lorraine Ashbourne playing brother and sister reunited after so many years and David Wenham, one of the abused coming to terms with his childhood and seeking his mother.
But for all the heart wrenching the film does at times feel a little clunky. It is an incredible story in itself and I can't help feeling that some of the character arcs are a little forced to provide a more film friendly narrative. I can understand why it has been done, it would be difficult to make a film about someone spending hours going through birth certificates engaging.
Overall though I'm going to give it 65% because it did tug at the heart strings quite a bit. Well a lot - just watching the trailer back brings a lump to my throat.
Rotten Tomatoes gives it an aggregated critics rating of 78% based on 23 reviews with 54% of site visitors saying they liked it. Metacritic doesn't have it listed.
Comments