The Good Wife Details

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Haunting and evocative.

I've seen this film years and years ago when I lived in Australia, where it's called The Umbrella Woman. From the start, the haunting soundtrack draws you in. The expansive landscape and scenery captivates the viewer, building a passion for lands known or unknown.

Rachel Ward is strong as Marge, the local brick - skilled in keeping home, acting midwife and running errands for her wayward mother. Though others perceive her as quite an enigmatic character, including her husband, Sonny (Bryan Brown), Marge feels ordinary and bored and awaits desperately for some excitement in her predictable life. She is also beautiful and catches the attention of the new barman in town, Neville (Sam Neill), a serial womaniser.

This sudden and intensely exciting attention is what Marge feels she has been missing and she embarks on ploys to set about snaring Neville. Having come from the city and being somewhat worldly when it comes to handling women, Neville is quickly deterred by an impending emotional imprisonment by Marge, before anything can happen at all.

Having sullied her reputation by brief sexual liaison with Sonny's kid brother, Sugar, (Steven Vidler), to allay her own boredom and help build Sugar's sexual confidence, she becomes increasingly desperate to unite with Neville to the point of obsession and stalking. Neill is brilliant as the suave and slick Neville, who turns out to be quite callous.

This is probably a woman's film, though many will find it extremely disturbing.