Alphabet Lane is an Australian film that examines how a young couple who have moved from the big city cope – or not – with the isolation of country life. Source: Australian Catholics.
Initially it seems that Anna (Cobham-Hervey) and Jack (Denton) are living the bush idyll.
They have a bluestone heritage home and hobby farmlet, while they maintain day jobs as a construction engineer and doctor at a regional hospital.
They invite friends to stay and make an effort to socialise locally but this doesn’t seem to work out. The couple work almost opposite shifts and meet on the country road for a quick catch-up.
We gain little insight into what makes them tick or what their passions are or why they have decamped to the bush.
Then one day, Charlie mentions that he has made a new friend, Joe, an older neighbour. Thus starts a bit of an imaginary game but quickly develops into something else as Emma adds a wife, Michelle.
Just for fun and distraction, they start to add episodes to the lives of these fictitious friends. Soon, they are writing to and receiving letters from them and seem to be more concerned over this imagined life than seeing the gaps in their own.
There is something of the bush or outback noir here, a cautionary tale that not all tree changes are happy and that isolation can affect mental health.
Alphabet Lane is an interesting debut by first-time director James Litchfield. As a first film, it is a good effort, and the landscape is certainly featured as a force in its own right. However, we needed more narrative energy to remain fully engaged.
Review by Ann Rennie, Jesuit Media
Alphabet Lane: Starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Nicholas Denton, Henry Nixon. Directed by James Litchfield. 80 mins. Rated M
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Alphabet Lane (Australian Catholics)
