Girl Asleep
This is destined to sit with Strictly Ballroom and Muriel’s Wedding as an archetypal Aussie classic. Adapted to screen from the play written by Matthew Whittet (who also plays Conrad in the film), Girl Asleep is a quirky, comical, absurd, heartwarming cake-walk through the delicateness and danger of turning 15.
Greta Driscoll is on the threshold of middle-teen-hood. She is in a new suburb, at a new school and is dealing with new sensations and experiences. Her new best friend, Elliott, is an outcast, and she has somehow managed to curdle her relationship with the créme del la créme triplets who are the “it” girls at school.
Her well-meaning mother throws a 15th birthday party for Greta and invites everyone in her class. The party proves overwhelming for Greta and she retreats to her room and, via an ambiguous electrical shock, is thrown into a deep sleep and surreal journey of discovery through her own psyche.
Garish 1970’s setting, Bollywood inspired dances, an ultimately charming plot – go and see it if you want to be in on the memes that it will undoubtedly generate. (RB)
★★★★
BY RITA BRATOVICH
