Australian movie, June Again, stars acting legend, Noni Hazlehurst, in the title role, along with Claudia Karvan, and Stephen Curry as her two grown siblings, Ginny and Devon.
June, who once was the family matriarch, now lives an assisted living aged care facility due to fairly severe dementia. However, one morning she wakes up in complete control of her senses, appearing to be dementia free. Unfortunately much time has passed, and everything is no longer how she remembers it, with her children's lives, and family business, seemingly falling apart. She sets about putting things right.
Any film that Noni Hazlehurst is in is reason enough to go see. Claudia Karvan and Stephen Curry are both well on their way to being that type of performer too. I've never seen either give a bad performance or make poor choices in the roles they take on.
June Again does a relatively good job giving the audience a general sense of what having dementia may be like but it doesn't dwell on it too much. It gives you just enough to be able to appreciate Ginny and Devon's disbelief when their mother suddenly turns up completely aware of who they are, as if she'd never had dementia at all.
Noni is well cast as a domineering mother, used to calling all the shots. The type of tough, stoic character role Noni's leaned into over the last decade or so, and plays so well.
Claudia and Stephen don't get a lot of screen time to convey their characters situation and emotional states but still manage to get across the tension and separation that has been building since their mother's dementia set in.
The trailer gave the impression this movie leaned toward being a comedy but, although it does have some funny moments, it's really a family drama about memories, both old and new.
It's not a big, life changing story by any means, but it's told well and has a bit of a surprise twist at the end that you may not see coming because you didn't know the movie is also a bit of a mystery too. (I didn't see it coming but it did make me feel a whole lot better about the ending once it happened).
Not a movie you particularly need to see in a cinema but I don't think you'll be disappointed if you do. Sometimes just watching a straight forward family drama can be pretty satisfying. I certainly enjoyed it.
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