Kate Grenville's novel Lilian's Story is an Australian masterpiece. The film had the potential to be brilliant, with the talents of Ruth Cracknell and Barry Otto, but instead of portraying the story of Lilian's life, an overly pretentious director turned a potential masterpiece into a vague montage-like kaleidoscope of confusing images that rendered the whole story incoherent. I was deeply disappointed, and refused to waste any more of my life watching this rubbish after it failed to deliver anything resembling the book (except one image, that of Lilian's mother timing the ferries)half an hour into the film. Incidentally, the character of Lillian is meant to be really plump as a child and later as a woman.......if the main character doesn't even resemble a novel's description, what chance does the film have? You might just as well cast Tori Spelling to play the Queen Mother...or even worse, Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly :)
Review of Lilian's Story
