Campion's first feature reaches parts the later ones can't, in its raw
exploration of the precariousness of houses built in family trees.
Genevieve Lemon's intense, wayward performance as problem daughter /
sister Sweetie, who disturbs the balance of her suburban family,
heralds Campion heroines to come. The director’s subtle suggestion -
that Sweetie's disruption is vengeance for a family trauma that has
disrupted her - haunts the film, which moves in a series of arresting and
charged images, from the shifting of light on a ceiling to jackaroos
slow-dancing in the Aussie desert. Unnerving protracted silences and
gospel soundtrack skew the mood further.
