Juniper
Family drama about a rebellious depressed teenager who is forced to care for his alcoholic grandmother after his mother’s death. With a great performance by Charlotte Rampling.
Seventeen-year-old Sam has been on a self-destructive spiral that could lead to his death. He returns home from boarding school to find his wheelchair-bound English grandmother, Ruth, has moved in. Ruth is an ex-war photographer with a lust for life and a love of the bottle. Sam soon finds himself profoundly confronted by her alcoholic wit and chutzpah. Their first meeting is awkward; their second violent. Things get worse when Sam finds himself stranded alone with her and her nurse Sarah for the school holidays. Both strong-willed characters, a battle of supremacy ensues, enabling Sam to embrace life again and for Ruth to face her mortality.
Matthew J. Saville’s feature debut is beautifully acted and poignantly shows how alcoholism and dysfunction can carry over from generation to generation. And Rampling is superb, giving depth to the rude, arrogant Ruth and showing her affinity for people in pain.