Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt) is the first full-length feature from writer/director Monica Zanetti, based on her own stage play. The film is both small-scale and full-hearted, the everyday story of a gay teenager as she navigates a new crush, a changing relationship with her mother, and her dead, gay aunt’s ghostly spirit who emerges as her fairy godmother.
The film follows Ellie (played by Sophie Hawkshaw), an upstanding student and well-behaved Australian teenager as she tries to ask her first crush, Abbie (Zoe Terakes), to the school’s formal. Ellie has always had things figured out, but doesn’t know what to do with her new feelings. In her first conversation with her mother (Marta Dusseldorp), she comes out as a throwaway, but really wants to talk about the girl she has a crush on. This is not another angst-filled film about coming out — being gay is normalized right off the bat. Zanetti manages to balance the experience of coming out with that of coming of age; being gay does make a difference in Ellie’s life experience, but she is also a teenage girl, trying to figure out love and her own place in the world.
We follow Ellie’s missteps and fumbles as she tries to connect to Abbie, and also manage the sudden appearance of the dead gay aunt she never met, Tara (Julia Billington). Tara is bright, bold, in your face, and Ellie finds herself struggling to let go of control and open up the way her fairy godmother/dead Aunt wants her to. Along the way, the film takes unexpected turns as Ellie’s mother comes to terms with her daughter’s sexuality and the awakened trauma of her own gay sister’s death.
Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt) is a cute, modest, and yet clever film, with moments of surprisingly fresh, sharp and authentic dialogue between Ellie and Abbie, as they flirt, misunderstand each other, exchange quips, and confess their interest and insecurities. The film ends up building to an unexpectedly moving third act, as we discover how Ellie’s aunt died and the fears Ellie’s mother has carried for years, as well as Ellie’s desire to deny and control her emotions, and Abbie’s deep fear of rejection.
The film has a small focus on a specific few days and a few characters; it makes sense it was originally a play, as many of the scenes are simply two characters talking, without a great sense of the larger world. We don’t see any of Ellie’s and Abbie’s friends, even as we see nameless classmates mill around them. We don’t see much of their world. This sort of mellow, contained approach can make some aspects of the film less distinctive or memorable. However, the conversations are, overall, well-written; scenes breeze along with perceptive and light-hearted banter. The film’s depth comes from the emotional confessions of the last third, as well its authentic and moving performances, particularly from Abbie and Ellie’s mother. By the end, Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt) will leave you surprised and invested in the characters’ journeys of healing and introspection.
Photo courtesy of Gravitas Ventures
The post Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt) appeared first on Spectrum Culture.
