THANK GOD HE MET LIZZIE

Australia, 1997, 91 minutes. Colour.
Richard Roxburgh, Cate Blanchett, Frances O’ Connor, John Gaden, Linden Wilkinson.
Directed by Cherie Nowlan.

Thank God He Met Lizzie is Cherie Nowlan’s first feature based on a somewhat autobiographical screenplay by Alexandra Long. Nowlan made the award-winning God’s Girls on the Sisters of Mercy.

Richard Roxburgh is Guy, a genial middle-class thirtysomething who has fallen for a wealthy doctor, the demure Lizzie (Cate Blanchett) at first sight and marries her. However, he keeps remembering his long-term relationship with vivacious Jenny (Frances O’ Connor) who comes from an ordinary (a touch eccentric) suburban family. Is he doing the right thing?

Where the film has its edge is that these flashbacks take place mostly during the lavish wedding reception. A very effective tension point comes when a letter from a Vietnamese orphan Guy has sponsored for years is read to the guests – only to discover that the letter was really written by Lizzie’s mother. We are not sure until the very end whether Guy will stay with Lizzie or run away.

The film might be compared with films about weddings, especially My Best Friend’s Wedding (directed by P.J. Hogan) which came out at the same time. The Say a Little Prayer sequence is a striking note in that film. Thank God He Met Lizzie also shares this enjoyment of parody of past songs with Jonathan Biggins as a smooth, suave, vain MC with Close To You and I Started a Joke among others.

The film is light, but is saying a great deal to younger adult audiences about relationships and commitment and about marriage and its consequences.

1. A romantic comedy for twenty- and thirtysomethings? Australian style?

2. The use of Sydney locations, the suburbs, homes, apartments? The church? Pubs? The wedding reception? Audiences identifying with the three central characters in this context?

3. The musical score, Close To You, I Started a Joke? The sentiments, the irony?

4. The title, Guy and his life, his needs, Lizzie and her need to settle down and be married?

5. Guy in himself, his work at the bank, his personality, at home, the experience with the cat, asking people for help, encountering Lizzie, the misunderstanding as to who owned the cat? The attraction – for life? Their going out together, the various outings, sharing and not sharing? Telling their stories or not? Guy not telling Lizzie about Jenny? Lizzie’s parents and their style, wealth? The mother and her organising, intervening? The guest list? The Vietnamese boy and Guy’s attachment to him? Guy being interrogated by the priest? Various incidental sequences like the long discussion about whether to keep the teapot or not?

6. Lizzie, her age, doctor, her relationship with her father and his expectations, her mother and her controlling? Free-thinking, the need to marry and settle down, her attitude, the touch of superficiality as well as glamour?

7. The wedding ceremony, the reception, the dances, speeches, toasts? The singer, his vanity? The drama about the cutting of the cake, Guy outside, eventually coming in? The photos? Lizzie and her need for a drink, the pills? The wedding planner, her presence, criticisms, collaboration?

8. The reception memories, Guy and his evoking Jenny, the relationship, the beginning and the end? Jenny and Sophie? At the bar, the introduction to Guy, talking with him for a long time, sharing? The range of outings? Moving in together? At home, the relaxed attitude, the painting, the nudity? Jenny and her immediate spontaneity, her moods, needing to talk and explain everything? Beginning to wear Guy down? The visit to her parents, her father and his eccentricity, song, his creativity? The clashes at home? The argument before the dinner, the guests arriving? The performance and clash, the reconciliation? Going to visit her parents, announcing the separation? Guy not seeing Jenny again?

9. Jenny as a character, attractive, sympathetic? In comparison with Lizzie? In relationship with Guy?

10. The ending, the wedding taking place, Guy and Lizzie together? Leaving the reception?

11. The caption of years later, with Lizzie, the children, going out, the domestic style? Their staying together? How much love? And would Guy still be remembering Jenny?

12. The themes of marriage, living together, commitment, falling out of love, motivations for marriage and staying within marriage?