A MONTH OF SUNDAYS

Australia, 2015, 110 minutes, Colour.
Anthony La Paglia, Julia Blake, Justine Clark, John Clark, Wayne Anthony, Indian Crowther, Donal Forde, Gary Sweet.
Directed by Matthew Saville.

Actually, this title doesn’t give much away at all and we may not be sure by the end what it means. But that can be put aside.It doesn’t really matter because the important thing is the film itself and its impact, a film that many audiences will like.

It should be said that the film has been sponsored in Adelaide and by the Adelaide Film Festival, and has been filmed in the Adelaide suburbs – which, in fact, make Adelaide look like a very liveable city. The city centre is seen only in distant outline several times – this really is a suburban film, about people, generally middle-class, ordinary Australians who live in the suburbs.

And, it should be said that Adelaide is the hometown of the main star, Anthony La Paglia.

And La Paglia appears in every scene. At the beginning, he mooches into a house, giving the impression that he is somewhat depressed. And he is. He is a 40-something real estate agent, who sees every building and every piece of land in terms of the words of advertising that he would put in the papers describing the particular house, its style, its amenities, its desirability, and the fact that if this did not suit potential buyers, the agency had another one which really should be theirs! It is rather amusing that right throughout the film, whenever he sees house, the voice-over has him offering these quite flowery and flattering descriptions.

Frank is going through a divorce. His wife (Justine Clark) has become a well-known TV star from a soap opera, Major Surgery. His teenage son, Frank Jr, can answer him only monosyllabically, “good” to every question his father asks about himself, school… His father does do a lot of picking him up from school and is able to sit in on a rehearsal of a rather contemporary sounding King Lear and to attend, with his wife, the actual performance at the end.

So, where is this going? Another thing that should be said is that in some ways the film meanders from one episode to another, but that this is not unenjoyable, but this is not one of those tightly controlled and disciplined screenplays, and while there is a driving force, it is not so dynamically forceful. What does set the drama going is a wrong number phone call when Frank answers the phone to a woman who think she is talking to her son. The woman, Sarah, is beautifully played by a most engaging Julia Blake. The two become friends, somewhat to the disappointment of her actual son. The friendship is tested when Sarah goes to a doctor for a diagnosis and Frank realises that she is ill.

There are some wonderful emotional sequences throughout the film, especially due to Julia Blake and her sympathetic performance. This is especially the case when Frank asks his boss whether she can visit the boss’s father who is in a home suffering severe dementia. The scene where she does this, talks with the old man – and later explains to his son something of his father’s history and what he endured in new Britain during World War II, a scene which is very moving indeed.

The estate agent boss is played by John Clark, whose presence throughout the film is always welcome. Australian audiences over the years have appreciated how John Clark can actually look the same, sound the same, sound as we expect him to sound, and yet actually communicate a range of different characters, from politicians to, in this case, an estate agent with a tendency to pomposity.

While there is something of a happy ending, perhaps not quite, this is a very life-affirming film, touching on quite a catalogue of social and moral concerns, including marriage and divorce, death and grieving, senility and communication, a touch of the issue of homosexuality and secrecy, father and son relationships and affirmation, and palliative care and decisions about life support.

A Month of Sundays has been written and directed by Matthew Saville, a credit to his sensitivity, for making – and this is in no way a putdown – such a “nice” a film.

1. A pleasing film? Life affirming?

2. The title, meaning?

3. An unhurried film, episodes, not a tight dynamic Drive but exploration of characters and situations?

4. The Adelaide setting, the suburbs, pleasant, distant views of the city centre skyline, streets, homes, offices, hospital, I am the oddly? The musical score?

5. Frank’s story? The presence of an semi-La Paglia? 40s, morose, depressed? Throughout the film, his approach to homes in locations with the descriptions he would write for advertising? Into the house, the sale, real estate, the visitors, their comments, at the option, the auctioneer, the bids, prices going up, Frank attacked by the young man and his hearing-impaired wife, saying he was a fraud – and his later helping them to buy the house at the proper price? Phillip, coming to save Frank with the couple? At the office, the secretary and her hair, no messages for him? Discussions with Phillip in the office, Phillip and his difficulties with the Internet? The different jobs, advertising, description? Going to play golf with Phillip? His continued work on his job, interviews?

6. Friend’s wife, meeting at the hospital, their son breaking his arm? His taciturn response to his father, everything “good”? His wife as a television star, her work in the soap opera, the popularity, her Twitter following? Her appearance? At the studio, the discussions with Gary Sweet, the crew? Frank coming, insisting on the hardhat? The phone calls, Frank picking up their son? Taking into the rehearsal, telling him that he admired his performance, eventually telling him, the sons embrace, his tears? Leading at the the applause at the performance? They’re there together, the question about why they were divorced? Potential for reconciliation?

7. Frank at home, the television, in the dark, the loader, the phone call and the talk with Sarah, her thinking that she was talking to her son, his continued response, as if his mother was still alive? Telling her the truth? Frank and his grief of the death of his mother? Ringing Sarah, apologising, the visit, their talk, the cup of tea, sharing grief, her wisdom? Her inviting him to dinner, his meeting Damien, the tension at the table, Damien not liking him? The effect of Sarah on Frank? The chance meeting at the hospital, the cutting him off, his being hurt? His diagnosing the cancer? Going to the drive, the plot and the old house, Sara and her memories of different parts of the house, going to visit the other house, the band playing, the welcome, the gift of the CD, playing it in the car? Frank discovering Sarah’s collapse, contacting Damien, the hospital, Damien upset, the cafeteria and talking with Frank, the issue of his being gay, the posters in his room? The issue of life support and turning it off? Frank present, Damien and his wanting to sell the house, the books, the souvenirs, Sarah’s gift to Frank, to Damien? Frank and is negotiating the price, contacting the couple, selling it to them?

8. Philip, his age, experience, real estate agent? John Clark and his screen presence, his look, manner of talking? Helping Frank in the Street, the office, the golf, at the different houses? His response to Frank’s descriptions? The visits to his father, talking him to him, leading him? At the office, the secretary, the water feature, the huge advertisement outside? Frank asking him to meet Sarah, there taking her to see Phillip’s father? The aftermath, Sarah telling Phillip the story about his father, in Rabaul, cut-off, the leader, and his being called after the leader?

9. Sarah, in herself, her age, life, the house, orderliness, her being a library, the ordered books, tutoring the young boy in English? The phone call, her embarrassment? Frank coming to tea, his measuring the room and her comment about the old measurements? The empathy? The invitation to dinner? The cancer, cutting, her apology, the visits to the site of the old houses? The meeting with Phillip? Telling him the story about his father? The collapse, in hospital, the issue of turning off the life support or not?

10. Damien, in the military, as a character, with his mother, the relationship? Dislike of Frank, the tension at the table? His mother’s death, Frank’s contact, the gift of each book? Frank and their talk about his being gay? The poster in his room? The friendship between the two – and Frank selling the house him?

11. Phillip’s father, dementia, sympathy, talk, memories, feeding? The happy encounter with Sarah and her reassuring him?

12. The couple, the white deaf, the baby, looking for a house, dissatisfied with Frank’s reaction and the price of the auction? The later gift of the house that happiness?

13. The final sequence, Frank looking at the audience – and the audience responding to him, having got to know him? Hope for his future?