Australian filmmaker Jane Campion's unorthodox daydream of family ties will likely infuriate more people than it pleases, defeating expectations as easily as it defies casual analysis. Describing it in any detail would only spoil the joy of discovery, for both the story and the idiosyncratic style of the film itself, which turns an already cockeyed domestic melodrama (introducing the oddball in-laws of an estranged young couple) into a sometimes grotesque but strangely compassionate portrait of sad, eccentric people living on the fringes of Down Under society.

Campion challenges the viewer's perception of what is or isn't real, using a portentous, artfully composed visual scheme, emphasizing in every shot her eye for geometry and deadpan comic detail. And then, mid-way through the story, along comes Sweetie herself to upset all the symmetry. Her younger sister calls her "a dark force"; her father treats her (affectionately) as the child she'll always be to him; and her mother, out of exasperation, simply walks away from all the subsequent turmoil. In a nutshell, Sweetie is the loose cannon in every family closet, and as played by newcomer Geneviève Lemon she's one of the more obscene and compelling characters ever to crash a movie scenario. Her story is, by turns, tender, pathetic, amusing, ominous, totally unique, and just plain weird.

First of all, I loved how this film was wholly unapologetic. It feels like the work of someone who's done what they wanted, without compromise. Still, this is not without its merits and problems. While the film stands out as odd and, as such, interesting without knowing more about it, I feel that it could have gained by using more traditional work on the plot, a little like Wim Wenders did on "Paris, Texas", or by Gus van Sant's "Paranoid Park", which are both odd films where the somewhat straightforward plots worked wonders without taking away from the unusual contents. Having said that, this film is filled with wonderful, everyday, never-before-seen imagery with wonderful human beings, a fresh view of presenting a film, photography where the object of a shot is rarely in the center of the image and a storyline that goes a bit all over the place - thank Bog for that. All in all: recommendable, and gets better as the film progresses.

Karen Colston isn't doing too well at the moment. It's not just that she's terrified of trees and that she and her husband haven't had sex in..... well, a long time, long enough for his attentions, if not actions to wander....but her marginal sister, Geneviève Lemon, has taken up residence by breaking a window. Meanwhile, her parents are bemused by both of them.

Jane Campion has made a career out of movies about the marginal people who are just getting by, marginalized by the robust, beefy standards of Australia, people who don't understand them. Or perhaps they are not well in the head, or some combination of the two, needing insight in a culture that is more concerned with doing than introspection. An air of depression hangs over this movie, and I think that's the motivation: Miss Colston and Miss Lemon are depressed (Miss Lemon seems more manic-depressive) and no one seems to know this, even them. Lacking this insight, they find themselves thinking they're doing something wrong, since other people seem perfectly happy, and drive themselves deeper into that depression, without the consolation of self-awareness and a strong morality.

It's a fine portrait. As a depressive myself, though, I find the movie sad and dispirited.