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When this gently affecting Australian comedy-drama premiered at Sundance earlier this year, it came burdened with the generic, misleading title of Clubland. While its new title, Introducing the Dwights, may not be that evocative either, it does better suggest the film's central theme: the difficulties of living in an attention-craving showbiz family. Director Cherie Nowlan and screenwriter Keith Thompson tell a somewhat familiar coming-of age tale, but their largely dispassionate tone gives such soft material a necessary edge.
Tim Dwight (Khan Chittenden) lives at home with his older brother Mark (Richard Wilson), who is intellectually disabled, and his mother Jean (Brenda Blethyn), an aging stage performer and comedienne. Most of Tim's life consists of playing personal assistant to his mom, calming her insecurities, catering to her needs, and driving her to gigs at a local dive. In the same town lives his father John (Frankie J. Holden), a washed-up singer still clinging to the warm memories of a chart hit he enjoyed 25 years ago. Divorced and working as a security guard, John hopes to remake himself as a country artist, but his future prospects look as dim as Jean's.
© Emanuel Levy
