Sweetie (1989)

Sweetie (1989)
Directed by Jane Campion
Written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee

Though she will most likely be remembered for the ultra successful, award winning drama The Piano, Jane Campion made her auspicious feature film debut with Sweetie, a black comedy about two sisters and their destructive relationship within a dysfunctional family. The film starts with wide-eyed neurotic Kay, who falls in love with Louis (Tom Lycos) after going to see a fortune teller. Later, their relationship begins to decay because he attempts to plant a tree in their backyard. It is at is seems -- Kay isn't the most emotionally stable or developed, and things get even more complicated when her emotionally infantile, slobby sister Dawn/Sweetie (Genevieve Lemon) shows up at their doorstep. The two sisters lock into an endless, childish struggle, and when the rest of the family gets involved it becomes clear as to the dangerous emotional effect Sweetie's suspected mental illness has had on the family (especially the sadly delusional, possibly incestuous father).

Campion, with cinematographer Sally Bongers, manage to create a richly textured world of fantasy within the scope of everyday objects and settings. Employing peculiar framing, carefully crafted camera movements, with surrealism and color saturated sets and costume design, Campion poetically intertwines her unique visual style with an engaging and equally disquieting script. The precise direction of Campion not only makes the film impressive to look at, but the unorthodox nature of the story and the simultaneously enchanting and horrifying work of the actors (particularly Lemon) makes Sweetie as close as a film can get to being a complete, fluid work.