Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2013

When a young Australian husband and father dies, his willful, brooding young daughter (a good Morgana Davies) declares that the enormous Moreton Bay fig tree in their yard now houses his spirit, and it becomes the symbol of the family’s struggle to move on. It looms and protects, but also attracts bats and frogs and ruins the plumbing. The lived-in performance by the always-compelling Charlotte Gainsbourg elevates this metaphor-flogging treacle to a watchable level, but she can’t stop it from then descending into pseudo-mysticism. I’d love to pun that it grew on me. But it didn’t.