JUNE AGAIN

Australia, 2020, 99 minutes, Colour.

Noni Hazlehurst, Claudia Karvan, Stephen Curry, Nash Edgerton, Pip Edwards, Darren Glishenan, Wayne Blair, Otis Dhanji, Brendan Donoghue,

Directed by JJ Winlove.

Already in 2020-2021, we have seen the high-profile, Oscar-winning The Father, with Anthony Hopkins experiencing dementia, the film inviting audiences to share his bewilderment and bewildering experience. Then there was a British film, Supernova, story of two gay men, one a carer, the other realising he was slipping into dementia. And now an Australian experience of dementia, the dementia of June, and her temporary recovery where she becomes June again.

The beginning of the film is full of pathos. Noni Hazlehurst, such a strong presence in Australian film and television for so many decades, is discovered in an institution, has been there for five years, living a bewildered life, supervised, urged to participate in activities, some visits from her sympathetic family but her not recognising them. But, she has an underlying shrewdness. We’re not exactly sure what happens to her, but she recovers her awareness of herself, as if she had returned to the moment when she collapsed into the dementia. She gets out. She gets a taxi. She goes to her home – only to find another family living there.

The main part of this story is June becoming herself again. And there is a real emotional problem. Do we really like this June?

Boy oh boy! Has she been a tough lady! Once recovered, taking some time to get used to the fact that five years have passed, we realise that her old self was quite a dominating and domineering matriarch. She had high expectations of her daughter, Claudia Karvan, married but tangled with some financial inadequacies of her husband (and two sons whose eyes and noses are continually buried in their phones – sigh of relief and applause when, finally, their mother shocks them by forbidding them their phones!). June had been manufacturing quality wallpapers with special stylised design. But, the factory has fallen on hard times, shocking June, but not stopping her intervening and interfering.

Worse has been her domination of her son, Stephen Curry. She discovers that he has not lived up to expectations at all, abandoning his legal studies, an unsteady job, divorced from his wife, whom June definitely approves of, love for his son, but a secret that needs to be surfaced.

And, the children have got rid of her stuff at a garage sale! There is a table that has fond memories and so she goes to get it back. Which leads to some revelations, some deeper parts of her past (and some flashbacks).

Where can it end? Some hope for her children and their families? Some reconciliation between brother and sister? And can this again period of June’s life be sustained? Does dementia eventually dominate?

1. Australian story? Universal story? Ageing, dementia, family relationships, possibilities for redemption and reconciliation?
2. The Sydney settings, the home for the aged, suburban homes and streets, interiors, the factory? The visit to the countryside? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus on June, her story? The initial impact, Noni Hazlehurst’s presence, age, her room, clothes, bewilderment, the treatment by the staff, by herself, with the others, the singing songs? The visits from the family? The revelation of her stroke 5 years earlier?
4. The change, the physiological change, consciousness, recovery? Her reaction, impatience, the revelation of her domination style? The past and her getting the code for the door, the guard and his carelessness, her escape, getting the taxi?
5. Audience response to this kind of experience, the sudden recovery, bewilderment, the discovery of the lost years, discovery of what had happened, especially to family?
6. June, taking initiatives, going to the house, Olive helping her, realising the house had been sold, the flashbacks to memories, getting the clothes?
7. Ginny, coming to get her mother, the visits to the aged care home? Her husband, the revelation about financial deals, the clash with Devon, the plan to repay? The children, phone obsessed? Her reaction to her mother, having missed her, yet the later comments about her mother putting her down? Driving her mother? Taking her to see Devon?
8. Devon, his mother’s ambitions, architect, the revelation that he had topped one course, her pressure? His marriage and June’s phoning his wife, discovering the divorce? His son? Working the photocopying the shop? His awkward manner, his boss and her criticisms, dismissing her? The tensions with his mother?
9. June, taking initiative, going to the factory, the shock at the deterioration, the friends, playing the taxi, discovering so many gone, the introduction to David, the conversation, his manner, the revelation of the truth? Her later returning, doing the work, Ginny helping her? Ginny and the plan with the plates and the designs, her mother dismissing them? Her mother later ringing the agent, seeing the plates and their extent, changing her mind? Ginny setting the price, and her self-assertion?
10. Going to the house, the drawings on the table, scratches? The missing sideboard? Devon and selling it on eBay? The address?
11. June deciding to recover the sideboard, taking the car, leaving the note, driving into the countryside, indications of decline, her stopping by the water, Ginny and Devon following, finding her, the car and the mud, getting it out? Going to the house? Discovering the sideboard? All her books and photos? The garage sale? The revelation of Dan? His buying all her things? Jinny and Devon and the frank talk about their father, gay, the mother’s relationship with Dan? Her flashback memories?
12. Her organising the meal, everybody turning up, the boys forbidden their phones, Devon and his gradual mellowing, his ex-wife, his son, Kyle and the embarrassment about the financial situation?
13. Devon, the accident with his son, not expressing it, their talking and embrace?
14. The awkwardness of the meal, June and the issue of tomato sauce, overhearing the comments, yet breaking down at the meal, then eating the meal eagerly? The gradual bewilderment taking over again?
15. June back at the home, the realisation for the audience that the handyman was Dan, his continued devotion to her?
16. The visit of the family, the support?
17. An effective reminder of growing old, senility, dementia, the consequences, and for the family?