CLOUDBURST

US, 2011, 93 minutes, Colour.
Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Ryan Doucette.
Directed by Thom Fitzgerald.

It is being said that, at least in Australia, there is a growing audience of senior citizens enjoy going to the cinema. The criticism is that there are not enough films for this audience, so much being made for teenage audiences and young adults.

Here is a film with elderly characters at its centre. However, a warning is probably needed to caution the potential audience as to whether they want to see the film or not. The subject matter is still controversial. And this particular film has a great deal of raunchy dialogue, some of which might put Melissa Mc Carthy, star of Bridesmaids and The Heat, into the shade. However, the film wants us to see through the raunchiness and the sexual references to the tenderness and the dignity of the central characters.

Olympia Dukakis plays the 80 year old Stella, almost 80 herself at the time of making the film. Brenda Africa plays her companion, Dot. They have been together in a relationship for 31 years. They live quietly in the northeast of the United States. However, Dot has become blind and is, even though very patient, dependent on Stella. She has been married and her granddaughter is very concerned and wants to get power of attorney. And she arranges for Dot to go into an institution.

The film shows the effect on Stella who gets Dot out of the institution and, somewhat on impulse, they decide to go to Canada to be legally married.

The film then becomes a road movie, from Maine up into Canada, through beautiful countryside, especially with the water. The women decide to pick up a hitchhiker, provocative young man who has been something of an exotic dancer in New York, but wants to go home to see his dying mother. In many ways, the audience sees the two women through his eyes as he listens to them, shares their journey, is puzzled by them. He is played by Ryan Doucette.

We get to know the women much better. Stella, very masculine in her style and mistaken in the diner for a man, has a very tough exterior, brought about surviving in a critical world. She is certainly very earthy in her heart look, her language, her references. But this also masks at tenderness, and affection and love for Dot, no matter how am disabled Dot becomes.

There are two key episodes to follow. The first is Prentice arriving home, the encounter with his ill mother, the clash with his father and some odd, the comedy with Dot and his father. The second is arriving in the town and the arrangements for celebrating the wedding, Stella making demands but also phoning the granddaughter. There is some mix-up, and some pathos at the end, with Prentice once again helping the two women.

As a film about old age, it has much to offer in terms of mutual love and support, especially through times of illness. As a film about same-sex relationships, it is one of those films, whether one is in sympathy with the situation or not, whether from religious and moral perspectives or from secular tradition, which present characters in real life and challenge response to the human and emotional to mention to give a perspective to a rational response.

1. The title? References to the sky, to clouds, shapes? Beauty and joy?

2. An American- Canadian story? The northeast coast? The towns, remote countryside? Beauty? Musical score?

3. The film about age, infirmity, the consequences? People helping each other, support? Family? Institutions?

4. The impact of the film for older audiences, identifying with the characters? For the middle-age generation and grandchildren? The effect? Perceiving the situations through Molly’s eyes? Tom’s? Through the perspective of Prentice and his experience with the women?

5. The sexual themes and issues? The status of same-sex partnerships, marriages? Public opinion? The law? Former criminal charges? Lesbians in contemporary society? As persons, in themselves, sexual orientation, behaviour, their broader life? Affection and love? Commitment, a 31 years? Marriage and changes?

6. A road movie, the northeast of America? Locations and look, the roads, water, the border, the towns, vehicles and hitchhiking?

7. The situation of Stella and Dot, 31 years? Stella at 80? Dot, her past, her marriage, separation, child, grandchildren? Her age, blind, her being
challenged by Molly, about her situation, about her bank credit, being taken to the institution?

8. The two women together, Stella and her lifestyle, yet tenderness? Dot, her more quiet personality, limitations, but patience? Stella not being patient? Her sardonic perspective on matters?

9. Molly, the documents, Stella ousting her? Molly’s husband, the police, his being the police? Stella and the visit to the institution, getting the dress, disguise, engineering the escape?

10. Olympia Dukakis as Stella, age, as experience, tough, masculine, her rough language, sexually explicit references? Audiences and their reaction to the language, the issues? Her humour, robust? Dot, earthy, Stella’s influence?

11. The decision about getting married, the impulse to go, travelling, driving in the car, the countryside, meals, sleep? Dot and her blindness, need for constant attention to avoid hurting herself?

12. The decision to pick up Prentice? His initial sexy look, Stella’s rebuff? In the car, seeing the two via his eyes?

13. His story, dancer, stripping, in New York, the dance instructors, his on-stage behaviour, extending the art form? Returning home, his sick mother? And the on the way, sharing, his driving Dot through the border? Returning for Stella, her behaviour at the border, documents, drugs, story about their relationship, his being searched, strip-searched, Stella thinking it a joke?

14. In the rain, his strip to dry his clothes, the women’s reaction?

15. Arriving home, his going in to see his mother, her illness, welcome, the breakfast? His clashes with his father? Leaving his mother?

16. Dot needing the toilet, going into the house, wandering the wrong room, the encounter with the naked father, her fears, his reactions, the ludicrous aspects of his behaviour, the nudity?

17. The episode on the island, the affection between the two women, the danger, Dot’s collapse, Prentice rescuing them?

18. Ups and downs at about the marriage ceremony? Stella and her commitment after 31 years? Dot, hesitations, agreement?

19. Stella, the pressure about the documents? Yet ringing Molly?

20. The ceremony, the administrator in the pulpit, Prentice as best man, the interruption, Molly and her tantrum, her foolish behaviour and prejudice?

21. Going home, Molly and her husband following, the ceremony in the car, Prentice and his officiating, his solo words? Their planning to take him to have a home with them?

22. Dot, the collapse, dying, her funeral, Prentice dancing and the various reactions?

23. Stella, the funeral her future?

24. The impact of the film overall, the raunchy touches as a filter to seeing through to the tenderness?