Lou

Writer-director Belinda Chayko tackles an emotionally complex story in this Australian film about an adolescent girl whose life is transformed after her father abandons the family—which includes her mother and two younger siblings—and her Alzheimer's-stricken grandfather moves in. Bill collectors are making life difficult for Rhia (Emily Barclay) and daughters Lani (Eloise MacLennan), Leanne (Charlie-Rose MacLennan), and Louise (Lily Bell Tindley), who live in the countryside of New South Wales; so when her father-in-law, Doyle (John Hurt), needs a place to stay over the holidays, she takes him in, partially for the rent payment. Eleven-year-old Lou is as wary of their new guest (the girls had never met him before) as she is of Cosmo (Jay Ryan), her mom's new boyfriend. When Doyle confuses Lou for his former wife, Lou at first tries to set him straight, but then she realizes it's easier to humor him. The sisters soon grow accustomed to Doyle's mercurial mind, even though Doyle comes to see local paperboy Colin (Damien Garvey) as a threat, due to the young man's expressed interest in Lou. A movie about a septuagenarian in love with a preteen presents obvious problems, but the film avoids any sexualized situations, although the closeness that develops between Doyle and Lou makes her family increasingly uncomfortable. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)