52 Tuesdays – Review

Australia continues to be an exciting source of fantastic movies; recently we’ve had The Turning, The Babadook and The Rover among others. And while 52 Tuesdays doesn’t rise to the same heights as these bigger efforts, it never really needs to.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the stakes aren’t big: 52 Tuesdays follows the life of sprightly teen Bennie, who discovers that her mum wants to undergo gender transition. In order to gracefully undergo this year-long transformation, Bennie moves in with her dad, making a pact with her mother (soon to be known as James) that they’ll meet for a few hours each and every Tuesday, without fail, to keep their connection alive while James undergoes the emotional onslaught of her planned change. Although things go well for a while, Billie – ever curious – goes through her own metamorphosis when she meets two lovers hiding in the school play wardrobe.

The strength of this psychologically astute and tenderly handled package from first-time feature director Sophie Hyde comes largely in the form of Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Bennie, whose Elvish grace gives her an air of one not entirely of this world; consequently, as a fly on the wall (literally filming her friends exploring each other sexually), she is the film’s strong central voice, her perspective unbiased. Similarly, Del Herbert-Jane plays James as brilliantly as can be, conveying this massive personal uplift with effortlessness, while the movie uses hints like small changes in hair-style to subtly reflect the passing of a year; unfortunately, the rest of the movie lacks a certain cohesion. Despite its wonderful emotional complexity in conveying these difficult issues, there is also a feeling that some of it is forced in some way, now and then mistaking attention toward issues of gender discrimination as character development. But while these flaws linger, 52 Tuesdays is proof that Hyde has the flare to go far, and to grow her filmmaking techniques as wide as her heroic ideas.