The Turning: Taking a turn for the diverse
WITH characteristic frankness, Australian author Tim Winton says he is “still trying to make sense of the damned book” he wrote in 2005.
WITH characteristic frankness, Australian author Tim Winton says he is “still trying to make sense of the damned book” he wrote in 2005, many stories from which serve as the basis for this unusual movie experience.
How unusual?
Well, 17 different local directors, casts and crews have been summoned to interpret different sections of Winton’s award-winning tome The Turning.
The variety of styles on display is dauntingly diverse. The overall running time is three hours, including a welcome intermission.
Some instalments breeze by with little impact. Others stun by deploying short, sharp stabs of great emotional power.
Sometimes, the whole thing can be a drag. Then The Turning can suddenly hit you with some of the best Australian filmmaking seen in years.
The principal setting is a stretch of coastline in rural Western Australia.
It is arguably the only factor that each vignette truly shares in common.
Whether events are unfolding in a built-up area, down on the beach, or in open scrublands, the environment plays a lead role in The Turning.
The wind, the sunlight, the waves, the sealed roads, the unmarked tracks, the silence and the noise are perhaps the only recurring characters we can identify with here.
(There are human figures that regularly appear in more than a few of these tales, but you will need to closely study a special guide included in the ticket price to recognise them from one section to the next.)
As is usually the case with films that use a compilation-like structure, some segments are destined to outshine the others.
For many, the standout episode will be a story featuring Rose Byrne as a young mother struggling to make ends meet in a caravan park.
An unlikely friendship with a born-again Christian woman (Miranda Otto) could be the making or breaking of this fragile soul.
Snowtown director Justin Kurzel also chimes in a with a funny, yet haunting portrait of a mythical loner named Boner McPharlin. We never actually get to meet the man in question, but his colourful reputation hits home very vividly indeed.
Actor Mia Wasikowska makes an assured debut behind the camera with a look at a young boy with an unhealthy fascination with firearms.
Hugo Weaving is in brilliant form with an understated portrayal of a former alcoholic who ran away from the world to save his own place in it.
Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Robyn Nevin feature in the most accessible section, a curious yarn about a dull Christmas lunch with an unexpectedly exciting aftermath.
The push-me-pull-you nature of the production will definitely prove to be a challenging experience for most viewers.
A commitment is demanded to go with the erratic, elliptic flow of it all. The choice is yours : respond or resist.
The Turning is playing for a limited season at selected cinemas until mid-October only.
> TIM WINTON’S THE TURNING [MA15+]
Rating: 3.5/5
Directors: various
Starring: Rose Byrne, Miranda Otto, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh, Libby Tanner
“Many lives, one mystery”