Shot in Brisbane, this amiable but slight comedy tinged with drama focuses on two young women who are so close they’re nicknamed Jucy, an amalgam of their first names, like Brangelina or TomKat.
The characters and their situations have a ring of truth, probably because the movie was inspired by the lives of co-stars Francesca Gasteen and Cindy Nelson.
Ably directed by Louise Alston, Jucy is being released direct-to-DVD on January 19 after gaining exposure at a number of international and local festivals. Despite its modest scale the movie is more entertaining and charming than some Oz features that played in cinemas in 2011.
Red-haired Cindy is Jackie and chubby Francesca (her size is a key plot point) is Lucy. They’re co-workers in a video store, Trash Videos, where Jackie is the manager.
Both have issues. Jackie is on medication (which she sometimes neglects to take) for a chemical imbalance in her brain and is seeing a shrink.
Lucy is 26, a uni drop-out, worries about her weight, describes herself as a 'stupid, useless, pathetic loser" and lives with her bossy, carping younger sister Fleur (Nelle Lee).
Jackie desperately wants a boyfriend – it’s 657 days since she had sex – and Lucy has a burning ambition to be an actress. The prospects of both girls achieving their goals seem brighter when they audition for roles in an amateur production of Jane Eyre and Lucy is cast in the title role and Jackie as the mad, imprisoned Mrs. Rochester.
Jackie has the hots for hunky Alex (Ryan Johnson), who plays Rochester, but he hooks up with another actress and after a glitch in rehearsals there’s a bitter falling out between the BFFs.
The screenplay by Stephen Vagg, based on characters created by Gasteen and Nelson, provides several further twists as the mood alternates between light comedy and gentle drama. The satire of amateur thespians is amusing while the film also deals candidly with the challenges of coping with social disorder.
The performances by the leads are entirely believable and why not – it’s a version of their own lives, apparently.
The production values are impressive considering the low-budget and a shooting schedule of 14 days plus 4 days of pick-ups.
