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Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Quite good Australian film about Judy Davis as a back-up singer for an Elvis impersonator stopping off in a small town only to befriend a local teenage tomboy who ends up being the daughter she gave up as a baby after the father had died. Written and directed by Gillian Armstrong, this is a smart character driven drama with a complex performance by Davis. Her character could easily have been a simply villainous character who eventually seeks redemption, but Armstrong and Davis make her character more complex than that. She's not just someone who gave up a child, but who may have actually done it for good reason for herself and the child, though that also may have been self rationalizing. It's that non-black and white presentation of the situation that makes this film so interesting. Claudia Karvan as the teenage daughter also gives a strong performance and is an equally well drawn, well rounded character by Armstrong, who is more than just a character simply wanting to know why she was abandoned. On the downside, I think the film was populated by too many colorful supporting, who were certainly entertaining, but who took away from the primary story. There's also the main contrivance of the plot the entire film centers upon, but let's not go there. Despite these minor quibbles, "High Tide" is a terrifically smart and engaging character drama.

This is one of those fine Aussie films that come along every so often, that we're truly blessed to see it. Real characters, real people, just like some of the good and great actors in this film, convincingly present. I must admit, I'm not really into tear jerker movies, and though this didn't make me cry, it made me recall memories of what it was like to be a teen. Another promising star was unleashed. Claudia Karvan, in her first film, was good, and her acting improved, years on, but still here, she was pretty good. A deserted child living with her grandmother in a caravan park in Eden, a bombshell arrives in the form of the deserted mother, Judy Davis, excellent, what else. A drunk, she tours with other dancers and a bad Elvis Impersonator (Frankie J Holden) a loser of a character, bloody good here, the head of this trashy group. As Davis's car has stalled, she takes residence in the caravan park, and becomes friends with, you guessed it, Claudia Karvan, who of course, doesn't recognize her mother, who left her when she was very young. But the grandma, mother to Karvan's father, definitely recognizes her, crossing angry grounds with her, warding her off from seeing her. Eventually Karvan, discovers the truth from a slip of the tongue by Davis' current boyfriend. So now we really have the really meaty bit of drama, that scene where daughter confronts mother, that moment of deliberation she can't lie when first answering "No". There's so many things, and real instances you can within this film, when being a teen, those private kisses, those self esteem issues, hair, etc. And too, disappointment, when you Nana says "No" to stuff. Frankie Holden is great in the second scene, the first has Karvan flat on her back on her board, on a cloud somewhere in daydream land. This film has memorable scenes that I recall now and then, while dozing off to movieland. The eighties were the best of times. I also too like the mechanic, who handled the lighter and cheerier scenes. The story and situations to decisions in this movie is handled with sheer realism. Careful film making like this should run more frequent with films of this type. And in the ending too, this counts double. I'm glad Davis's decision was the one I wanted her to make. For Aussie lovers of drama, this is a must see, a fine feature film of value. And for Karvan, this is a great vehicle, to have for a starting point, and on a resume.

There are very few performers today who can keep me captivated throughout an entire film just by their presence. One of those few is Judy Davis, who has built a successful career out of creating characters that are headstrong in attitude but very vulnerable at heart. She takes roles that most other performers would treat melodramatically and adds a fiery, deeply emotional intensity that pulls attention away from everything else on the screen.Her skills are well displayed in "High Tide," a film that matches her up a second time with director Gillian Armstrong, who gave Davis her first major success with "My Brilliant Career." In that film, Davis played a young woman who was determined to make it in the world, despite the suffocation she felt from her community and upbringing. In "High Tide," however, Davis' character, Lillie, is roughly the opposite: she gave up on any hope for her future when she was young, and, after giving birth to a child, runs from her responsibilities and takes up a life without direction or meaning. When she finally meets up with her daughter years later, the thought of taking care of her child is petrifying; she knows this is her chance to atone for her failures, but how can she be honest with her daughter and still gain her respect?Gillian Armstrong's films usually relate stories about characters who desperately want to communicate with each other, but face obstacles set up by their own personal habits and addictions. "Oscar and Lucinda," for instance, was about a man and a woman who desperately needed each other's love but were always blindsided by their craving for chance, represented by their gambling addictions. Here, we are immersed in the world of a family torn apart by the mother's inability to commit to a settled life and her struggles to redeem herself despite being fully convinced that it's too late to change for the better. This is not simply a film with a great performance at its center, but also a rare achievement: a fully convincing story of redemption.

This is not the stuff of soap-operas but the sort of conundrums that real people face in real life. A testament to the ensemble and director for the powerful story-telling of fallible characters trying to cope but not quite succeeding.