The film is a vehicle for Wendy Hughes, who displays all her trademark charm and vulnerability as Stella, a fading beauty in a fading town, keeping her father company in their little pub deep in the WA outback.
John Hargreaves plays Andy, a travelling shearer and rodeo rider, full of masculine bravado as he returns to stay in Stella's pub, as he has for many years past, hoping that Stella will change her mind and marry him. Unfortunately Stella is too used to rejecting Andy to realise that she can no longer win the hearts of young local men, and that Andy is her best chance of happiness in the shrinking town.
The film is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams's Streetcar Named Desire, even using the same name for the woman whose fortunes are fading. The characters here have the same insecurities, failures, resentments and bad memories as Tennessee William's characters, and manage to make fools of themselves and hurt each other in the same ways.
Though this melodrama seems a bit dated now, the strength of the acting does lift this story, and there is a strong narrative and plenty of cutting dialogue to stave off the boredom such an old-fashioned story might suffer.
John Hargreaves plays Andy, a travelling shearer and rodeo rider, full of masculine bravado as he returns to stay in Stella's pub, as he has for many years past, hoping that Stella will change her mind and marry him. Unfortunately Stella is too used to rejecting Andy to realise that she can no longer win the hearts of young local men, and that Andy is her best chance of happiness in the shrinking town.
The film is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams's Streetcar Named Desire, even using the same name for the woman whose fortunes are fading. The characters here have the same insecurities, failures, resentments and bad memories as Tennessee William's characters, and manage to make fools of themselves and hurt each other in the same ways.
Though this melodrama seems a bit dated now, the strength of the acting does lift this story, and there is a strong narrative and plenty of cutting dialogue to stave off the boredom such an old-fashioned story might suffer.