Cert 15 Stars 3

Following her moving turn in this years adaptation of Little Women as the youngest sister Beth, Eliza Scanlen seems to be carving a career of playing seriously ill daughters, as she appears as another one in this indulgent and meandering Australian coming-of-age drama.

As Milla, she’s a cancer stricken teenager who while contemplating suicide on a station platform meets a smalltime drug dealer, Moses and is drawn to his reckless swagger, carefree nature and multiple tattoos.

As Moses, Toby Wallace demonstrates the charisma which saw him cast in a biopic as the young rockstar Michael Hutchence.
However as she’s a schoolgirl and Moses is 23, her parents – played by Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn – aren’t best pleased.

I wasn’t surprised to learn it originated as a stage play as it fits a template of the most dreary type of theatrical navel gazing, being a portrait of the middle class in crisis, and full of disastrous dinner parties and smashed violins. And as such it’s hard to relate or care about. However it’s finely crafted and the acting is faultless across the board.