While the ABCs of The Jackson Five (and Michael) released on the big screen this week, a new Aussie psychological thriller Alphabet Lane is also now showing at Alice Springs Cinema, a film that takes the concept of having an imaginary friend just a little bit too far…
Young couple Anna and Jack (Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Nicholas Denton) have moved to the country and are having a hard time making friends in the isolated environment. The pair trade stories back and forth about an imaginary couple Joe and Michelle, an in-joke at first, that soon becomes part role play, part coping mechanism and part weirdly messed up fantasy wish fulfilment scenario.
As an audience, it is not so much the imaginary lives that we are interested in, but the way in how and why the tool is used. As a method of indirect communication of fears, of speaking that which is too difficult to say. How Anna relies on Joe and Michelle as a crutch for her loneliness and of course Jack tries to make it into a dumb sex thing. Ugh.
Alphabet Lane is a unique concept and I was along for the ride for the bulk of the film, but it lacks a satisfying and believable conclusion. Cobham-Hervey gives a stand out performance leaving the audience questioning her motives. Is it harmless fun or genuine psychosis at play here?
While the ABCs of The Jackson Five (and Michael) released on the big screen this week, a new Aussie psychological thriller Alphabet Lane is also now showing at Alice Springs Cinema, a film that takes the concept of having an imaginary friend just a little bit too far…
Young couple Anna and Jack (Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Nicholas Denton) have moved to the country and are having a hard time making friends in the isolated environment. The pair trade stories back and forth about an imaginary couple Joe and Michelle, an in-joke at first, that soon becomes part role play, part coping mechanism and part weirdly messed up fantasy wish fulfilment scenario.
As an audience, it is not so much the imaginary lives that we are interested in, but the way in how and why the tool is used. As a method of indirect communication of fears, of speaking that which is too difficult to say. How Anna relies on Joe and Michelle as a crutch for her loneliness and of course Jack tries to make it into a dumb sex thing. Ugh.
Alphabet Lane is a unique concept and I was along for the ride for the bulk of the film, but it lacks a satisfying and believable conclusion. Cobham-Hervey gives a stand out performance leaving the audience questioning her motives. Is it harmless fun or genuine psychosis at play here?
