Closed For Winter (2009); drama film review

Poster artwork for the drama film Closed For Winter. Image: Goalpost Pictures.

Hibernating Heart by Linh

Closed For Winter made its Australian premiere at the 2009 Adelaide Film Festival with songstress Natalie Imbruglia and director James Bogle as special guests.

It was originally titled Elise and filmed entirely in the beachside suburb of Semaphore in Adelaide, with a supporting cast featuring some of the state’s top talent.

Based on Georgia Blain's novel of the same name, Closed For Winter is the story of a young woman, Elise, haunted by the disappearance of her elder sister, Frances, who went missing twenty years ago from the beach.

The memories of Frances come to her in flashbacks of their time together, leading up to the day her sister disappears. As family secrets are revealled, Elise emerges from her darkness to start living her life again.

Closed For Winter moves at a slow and steady pace in the beginning, with Natalie Imbruglia in the lead role as Elise, wide-eyed and silent for most scenes. Elise still struggles with her sister’s mysterious disappearance two decades later and lets herself drift into emotional oblivion, hardly caring about her life and those in it. Imbruglia imbues enough compassion and inner-strength into her character that you symphasise with Elise’s loss, yet Imbruglia’s performance is overshadowed by the younger Elise (Tiahn Green).

Almost a spitting image of Natalie Imbruglia in her younger years, Tiahn Green makes her film debut as the eight year old Elise with an intuitiveness and strong composure that makes her a standout.

Other notable performances include stage and film actress Deborah Kennedy, in fine form as Dorothy, Elise’s mother, who obsessively collects and cuts out newspaper articles of missing people and keeps them in a scrapbook, in the hope of one day finding her daughter. Dorothy is also dealing with the loss in a way which seems as if punishing herself for not being able to keep watch over and protect her daughter.

Dorothy and Elise’s relationship becomes strained over the years and living with each other as well as the memory of Frances becomes a challenge for both.

Kennedy brings both humour and seriousness to a complex role of a mother who has lost a husband and a daughter.

SADNESS: Elise (Natalie Imbruglia) is at an emotional impasse over her sister's disappearance in the film Closed For Winter. Image: Goalpost Pictures.

Tony Martin gives an excellent performance as John, the family doctor, who checks in on Dorothy on a regular basis, and holds a secret to Elise’s family past which involves her sister Frances.

John seems to be the one who gently stirs Elise from her ‘dark place’ and helps her awaken from the traumatic past to heal herself emotionally.

Some familiar faces which appear briefly in the film, and local audiences may recognise, include Danielle Catanzariti as Frances (Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger), Carmel Johnson as Mrs Brownsord; Antje Guenther as the police woman who questions young Elise on the events at the beach; and Michelle Nightingale as the Police Officer who speaks with young Elise at the police station.

Closed For Winter is a story of the survival of the human spirit and how finding the missing pieces from your past helps in the healing process.

KINDRED SPIRIT: John (Tony Martin) is one of the very few people who understands Elise (Natalie Imbruglia) in the film Closed For Winter. Image: Goalpost Pictures.

Director: James Bogle

Writers: James Bogle (screenplay), Georgia Blain (novel)

Cast: Natalie Imbruglia, Daniel Frederiksen,Deborah Kennedy, Tony Martin, Tiahn Green,Danielle Catanzariti, Sophie Ross, Geordie Taylor, Guy O'Donnell, Henri Phillips, Antje Guenther,

Raffaele Spano, Carmel Johnson, Michelle Nightingale, Lincoln Zomer, Duncan Graham, Patrick Graham

Producers: Ben Grant, Rosemary Blight, Kent Smith

Cinematographer: Kim Batterham (Director of Photography)

Original Music Composer: Daniel Denholm

Film Editor: Denise Haratzis

Production Designer: Rita Zanchetta

Costume Designer: Anita Seiler

Running Time: 1 hour and 26 minutes