![]() Her mom (a perfectly cast but underused Jacki Weaver) visits to cheer her up and help out around the house, but she’s more inclined to nag than sympathize. Small details like these make her daily struggle feel specific and real, and Watts finds subtlety in moments of frustration that could have been melodramatic. She feels detached from the mundane sounds of her younger kids playing in the living room, and when she attempts basic parenting tasks like fixing their lunches for school, she drops the knife and bread on the kitchen floor, magnifying her sense of helplessness. Having been so independent and active for so long, Sam is understandably depressed, spending long days in bed with the curtains drawn. We see her fall several times over the course of the film, providing different perspectives as we delve deeper into the family’s dynamic. But as they climb the steps to a rooftop to enjoy a scenic view, Sam leans against a wooden railing that gives way, sending her plummeting to the ground below. Working with cinematographer Sam Chiplin, Ivin sets the scene of the family’s fateful Thailand holiday with imagery that’s both vivid and impressionistic: pool plunges, marketplace strolls, nighttime fireworks. But then last year happened,” says Noah, the film’s narrator. Or at least they did, before Sam’s accident: “Everything was pretty much perfect. She and her photographer husband, Cameron ( Andrew Lincoln), enjoy an adventurous life of sports and travel with their three rambunctious boys: tween Noah ( Griffin Murray-Johnston), Reuben ( Felix Cameron) and Oli ( Abe Clifford-Barr). Watts stars as Sam Bloom, an avid outdoorswoman and surfer living a peaceful existence in an airy, modern house overlooking the beach in New South Wales, Australia. While the script from Harry Cripps and Shaun Grant too often features on-the-nose dialogue-with characters literally spelling out the film’s themes-and it all wraps up in safe and predictable fashion, “Penguin Bloom” offers just enough moments of authentic emotion and poignancy to make it compelling.
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