She imbues all her characters in
an almost-supernatural way, making them larger than life.
The New Boy of the title, a talented Aswan Reid in his first role, has no other name.
He demonstrates his courage, strength and determination to survive during a tussle with a policeman, and is then dumped late at night, wrapped in a chaff bag, on the doorstep of a remote monastery orphanage.
He brings no backstory, few words.
Sister Eileen runs the place, set in vast wheat fields, with a secret reason for hiding the way in which she’s come to be in charge rather than Dom Peter, never seen and quite possibly dead.
None of the tradespeople who visit the monastery discover that the person signing official documents is not Dom Peter; nor do they discover that the ghastly noises coming from behind a closed door are not Dom Peter in distress.
Despite all that at the start, even less happens than in Jane Campion’s Power of the Dog, another film about isolated, tormented people dwarfed by a magnificent landscape. In both films, the character is more important than the story.
World War II rages on the far side of the world, but here in the Outback, war means not a lot, except there’s an absence of able-bodied men.
So the orphanage’s boys help out on the land.
They’re fed and cared for by Sister Eileen, another nun known as Sister Mum (Deborah Mailman) and hired hand George (Wayne Blair).
Christianity is largely seen through the eyes of the New Boy, a blank slate or perhaps an independent thinker.
He has his own divine power, or so it seems.
Warwick Thornton himself went, aged 11, to a boarding school run by Benedictine priests.
A dying-Christ statue dominated their chapel, but Warwick Thornton had never seen a crucifix until he went to that school.
“So that was pretty wild. A man up there getting tortured and the fear that comes with that – if you don’t pray, if you don’t believe, you will burn.”
The delivery of a carved, almost life-size Christ is the turning point for the New Boy.
Once raised above the altar, the New Boy climbs it, as if it’s a tree, and clings to it.
He’s koala-like, playful, and yet at the same time, he seems to be clinging to Christ, wanting safety or even redemption.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis wrote the score for European instruments.
Occasionally, the audience is encouraged by the music to laugh at things that probably shouldn’t be laughed at.
Part of Cate Blanchett’s allure in her role as Sister Eileen is that using her comic talents, she draws the audience into the wickedness of her character, even as she desperately tries to atone.
Warwick Thornton’s camerawork and lighting are superb. Cate Blanchett is outstanding. Aswan Reid is one to watch.
Highly recommended
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