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The Year My Voice Broke (1987)

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A film to restore one's faith in films about the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It's 1962 in the Australian backwater town where callow teenager Danny (Taylor) has grown up with the slightly older Freya (Carmen), an orphan child with a murky past who feels like an outsider. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is showing at the Astor, The Shadows strum 'Apache' on the radio, and car-stealing delinquent Trevor (Mendelsohn) fancies himself as the local rebel without a cause. Using telepathy, 'force fields', and hypnosis, Danny tries to win Freya's love, but the bad boy hunk aims lower and scores... So sure is writer/director Duigan's feel for the characters, the period, and the prevailing moral climate, that the faintly supernatural elements are effortlessly integrated: as the mystery surrounding the local 'haunted house' unfolds, there is an uncanny sense of a scandalous episode in the community's history repeating itself. A lovingly crafted and deeply affecting film, this might be likened, in terms of both quality and perception, to Rob Reiner's excellent Stand By Me.

Author: NF

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

ed said...

Posted on Apr 18 2011 13:44 Quite simply the best coming of age film ever made. Regardless that it was made in Australia, this speaks volumes to anyone from anywhere. The landscpe plays a large character in this film, some of the best camera work in an Ausse flick I've ever seen. This is ahead of Stand By Me because it has three central performances that are spot on and realistic. Only now are the two male leads reaching international audiences Ben Mendelsohn and Noah Taylor, not sure what became of Loene Carmen. This is a real pig to find on DVD and deserves a wide retrospective one day.
The film was shot in 1986 in Braidwood, NSW (about an hour south of Canberra) and it's set in 1964 (I think).
Flawless soundtrack, impeccable acting, sad and moving story and it's sequel FLIRTING is that rare sequel that is completely different in many ways but works well as an extension, so it's hard to say if it is a superior film.
On the 25th Anniversary DVD there is an interview with the actors by John Duigan (the director) where he mentions that he has long been trying to get a third part into production. If we wait any longer, Danny & Freya will be in an old people's home...

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emmasauras said...

Posted on Apr 22 2009 12:42 this film is very moving and original. and i dont think ive ever seen any other film quite like it. sure, the displays of public urination and sexual acts can be quite rank, but it really helps people understand just what life was like back in the 50's in NSW, australia.
from the social scale to the strains of their sexual wants and needs, this movie has it all and really gets down into the nitty-gritty of this country town.

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