Oranges and Sunshine User Reviews

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Oranges and Sunshine is the first film from Jim Loach, the son of veteran director Ken Loach. The film retells a shameful and mostly unknown story from recent British and Australian history whereby more than 100,000 children were forcibly deported to various Commonwealth countries (this film focuses on those sent to Australia). In most cases the children were from poor families or born to single mothers and they were often told that their parents were dead even though this was not always true. Almost by chance a British social worker, Margaret Humphreys ( Emily Watson) discovered the story and ended up spearheading a campaign to help the children discover their original identities and, where possible, reunite them with their lost families   
 
As you can imagine it's a topic loaded with emotion and therefore fraught with pitfalls that can push a film over the edge into melodrama or sickly-sweet sentimentality. Luckily the film is well balanced, focussing on Margaret's work to reunite the grown deportees with their lost identities rather than emotive deportation flashbacks or getting bogged down in the political ramifications of the story. When the tearful stories are eventually told they feel justified and not manipulative.
 
The story does occasionally falter though especially in the early scenes, with a few overstuffed dialogue scenes explaining to the audience what's going on in no uncertain terms. Also, given that the film is supposed to be about uncovering something hidden answers come a little too quickly and research is just a little too efficient at times. I'm sure these decisions were made to keep the plot on track but they do somewhat undercut the drama.
 
Watson delivers a strong performance, mixing strength and determination with fragility and empathy in just the right quantities without ever seeming self-satisfied or self-righteous. Hugo Weaving does a spectacular job as one of the now grown-up children haunted by the separation from his mother and his experiences in care. David Wenham is also excellent as someone you may not like initially but will hopefully come to understand. Indeed the subtle treatment of his personal arc is one of the film's strongest points.
 
Loach seems to have spent several years directing episodes of various British TV shows and his first foray into feature directing is a successful one. His direction is understated, not too showy and mainly serves the story by, as far as possible, staying out of the way and letting the character speak for themselves. The result is a very considered film which, although emotional, is not as grim as it could have been.
 
Overall despite a few wobbles Oranges and Sunshine is a film well worth seeing. It illuminates a period of history which many people are unaware of and it does it with simplicity, grace and warmth. And it also represents a promising start to its director's career as a feature film director.