No. 31 (2021) JUNE AGAIN. MAY 3rd.

 

Film No. 31 (2021)  May 3rd.  6:30 PM  EVENT CINEMAS  No. 4,  Innaloo.

"All this control you seem to think you have over this company, well you don't. It dissolved a few years ago". (David explains to June that she no longer had any control over the wallpaper screen print business she once ran).

This is such a great idea for a film: a vibrant A Type personality, who negatively affected family and friends, rises from the ashes of dementia to a changed world and spreads their wings again. Has this new world moved on from her influence? And how long will this mind-reboot last? Simplistic I know, but a great idea don't you think? So why does JUNE AGAIN only nearly fulfil all its promise?

Don't get me wrong, JUNE AGAIN is good, it's just that it could have been so much better. Noni Hazlehurst as June and Claudia Karvan as daughter Ginny working together with a moderately meaty script gave JUNE some bite. Stephen Curry (son, Devon) had the funniest lines and the saddest story to tell, making the mini road-trip for the three as they resolved differences, work. Hats off to writer/director J.J. Winlove (LIFE IS RISKY) on his best feature to date.

We know at some stage June is going to make us feel sad. Seeing June in action suggests that her narcissistic tendencies have shaped the lives of family, friends and workmates. It's a mirror June is not ready to look into as she walks back into life not quite as she left it. Dementia works like a time machine here, hopefully Noni's June will right some wrongs, but without a fairy-tale ending. She does to a point but overplayed theme music intrudes somewhat. 

I'm a Nash Egerton fan, so when he turns up as Ginny's hubby Kyle I was expecting a character with dimension. There was no script nourishment for Nash on this occasion, mores the pity. The real relationship which gave little for us to hook onto came from June's past, but I won't be spoiling this part of the story. It's clever, but for me not fully developed. This was disappointing but not disheartening ...... JUNE AGAIN is worth a watch. The preview audience we watched it with loved it. 8GUMS.