Word: sybylla
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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Rather loftily for a girl living on a wind-worn ranch in the Australian outback, Sybylla proclaims that she belongs to the world of art and literature. Her impoverished parents are exasperated, but not much worried. They assume that the world of family and property will change her mind. The sense-bringing task is undertaken by her wealthy maternal grandmother, who invites her to live at her gracious plantation. There rebellious Sybylla is to learn to dress in a ladylike manner, deal with servants and comport herself properly with proper people...
...also assumed-and no one is hesitant about putting the assumption into direct speech-that she will make it her business to attract a man of suitable wealth and submit to marriage. "Marriage gives us respectability, my dear," explains her grandmother. Sybylla is considered to be plain, and she is given to understand that she had better not be choosy (Actress Judy Davis, the sly and lively redhead who is Sybylla, is, of course, very attractive...
...time it seems that Sybylla will indeed submit, though not before a wild fox chase. She makes life miserable for an unsuitable suitor (so identified because his hair is parted in the middle), and is even harder on the suitable chap, Harry Beecham (Sam Neill), who is solemn, good-looking and earnest. But when she prankishly overturns a boat in which they are punting, soaking them both in their decorous, neck-to-ankle costumes, it can be assumed that she likes him. When he proposes, it is hard for her not to accept...
...CONCEITED performance of Sam Neill as Beecham makes Harry and Sybylla's love less credible. He peers from underneath his broad-rimmed hats as if posing for Gentlemen's Quarterly. His one-dimensional and completely uninspired performance clashes with the superb acting of the other characters. Robert Grubb as Hawdon is especially outstanding as Sybylla's awkward suitor, and Pat Kennedy--who plays Beecham's stodgy Aunt Gussie--is an archetypal proponent of Vicotrian mores. Don McAlpine, the director of photography, in a sense presents the most stellar supporting performance. McAlpine's love for the Australian landscape builds...
...written by women, as this one is. But to label it as a "woman's movie" is to deny its greater focus. My Brilliant Career is about a person who struggles for individuality in a constrained society. The question, though, is whether individuality and love are mutually exclusive, as Sybylla all too abruptly decides they must...