Winter of Our Dreams

Contemporary urban life in the lucky country found wanting. Alas, this offering from the New Australian Cinema wears its heart and its didacticism on a rather tired old sleeve. The storyline bulges with stereotypes. The suicide of a folksy idealist turned hooker brings about the meeting of two people from two different realms of her past: her agitprop, Richard Neville-clone former lover, Rob (Brown), now owner of an arty Sydney bookshop; and fellow pro and junkie, Lou (Davis). Armed with her loser's uniform of peroxide crew-cut, kitsch togs, and aggressive vulnerability, Lou sets out to win Rob from his cosy refuge of bland materialism. Against a tritely sentimental screenplay and an eerily inert performance from Brown, Davis fights an uphill battle to provide convincing emotional light and shade.