29
Mar/13

MENTAL

29
Mar/13
MENTAL

A strange hitchhiker (Toni Collette) becomes a nanny to five sisters in MENTAL

MENTAL (PJ Hogan, 2012)
Opens Friday, March 29
www.mental-movie.com

Australian writer-director PJ Hogan’s latest film, Mental, seems, well, a bit mental itself, but it gets even crazier when you learn that much of it is based on Hogan’s own childhood. A wild romp through the very serious world of mental illness, Mental opens with Shirley Moochmoore (Rebecca Gibney) wandering outside her suburban home belting out “The Sound of Music,” but her obsession with that movie — and her desire for her family to be like the Von Trapps — embarrasses her five daughters, annoys the snooty neighbors, and soon lands her in an institution. Not knowing how to take care of his girls, each of whom has her own psychological issues, Shirley’s philandering husband, Barry (Anthony LaPaglia), the mayor of Dolphin Heads, picks up a stray hitchhiker, Shaz (Toni Collette), and hires her to take care of his family while he continues to live elsewhere. The boozing, smoking, knife-wielding, straight-shooting Shaz, who has some very deep problems of her own, sets out to whip the girls into shape via unusual methods, which initially troubles and frightens them, but soon the sisters, led by the oldest, Coral (Lily Sullivan in her splendid acting debut), develop a rather unique relationship with their newfound caretaker. With Mental, Hogan (Muriel’s Wedding, My Best Friend’s Wedding) walks the fine line between dysfunctional family drama and wacko surreal fantasy, particularly in such characters as neat-freak next-door-neighbor Nancy (Kerry Fox) and doll-obsessed relative Doris (Caroline Goodall). The subplot involving shark hunter Trevor Blundell (Liev Schreiber) never quite works, ending up literally and figuratively going overboard. The final scenes are a mess and a major letdown, but much of the rest of the film is a whole lot of loony, absurdist fun as Hogan takes on suburbia, local politics, marriage, parenthood, and conventionality in general.