showtrmp Review of Smash Palace

Smash Palace (1981)

Masterful--but just try getting anyone to see it.

[9/10 · 6 April 2012]

This is one of those intuitive, risky movies that a viewer will either take to his heart, or reject completely. It is almost impossible to explain to friends how compelling it is--describing the plot, which involves psychological domestic violence and the kidnapping of a child, certainly doesn't make it seem appealing. Yet this film has a sensual, primal power that is always on the verge of exploding; if you connect to the movie in any way, you won't be able to take your eyes off it. It is set in a remote corner of New Zealand, which is endemic to the storyline--the seething sense of unease and frustration seems to bubble up from under the rocks. It has contaminated the marriage of Al and Jacqui--he's a native, a man's man who releases his energy in racing cars; she's a delicate, exquisite French woman who feels abandoned and frustrated in this harsh setting--she didn't know when she married Al what she was getting into. As their eight-year-old child Georgie, Greer Robson gives one of the best child performances I have ever seen on screen--her reactions to every situation are slightly off and goofy (like a real child), yet you never catch her trying to be adorable. In one of the most effective scenes, Al and Jacqui are arguing violently, and Georgie escapes through a window and huddles in Al's truck with the family dog; her haunted face tells us more than we would learn if the camera stayed on Al and Jacqui. (It returns a moment later, to find the two of them ending the argument with a round of angry sex--certainly the worst decision they could make, and one I don't think I've ever seen depicted on the screen before.) Jacqui leaves Al, and keeps him from seeing Georgie, which drives him a little mad; he kidnaps the child at gunpoint (again, her expression is searing) and shatters everyone's lives. Lawrence is amazing in the role; a lesser (or more Methody) actor would probably make the audience (especially women) hate him, yet you can't--you see how he just can't be apart from Georgie. The end, which I will not reveal, is somehow perfect for this story, although it doesn't resolve a thing; the final shot is one more closeup of Georgie's face, and we know she has already been jerked (cruelly) into adulthood before the age of nine. As Pauline Kael noted, "The rage of fathers deprived of their children--a situation few men experienced in the past--is no doubt a key madness of our age."