Soft Fruit (1999)

Synopsis: Soft Fruit is the story of three bossy sisters and their brother who come home to steel-town Port Kembla, from America, Sydney and jail. It's the first time in eight years they've been under the same roof and they've come to nurse their beloved mother Patsy through her last weeks. First, the... Soft Fruit is the story of three bossy sisters and their brother who come home to steel-town Port Kembla, from America, Sydney and jail. It's the first time in eight years they've been under the same roof and they've come to nurse their beloved mother Patsy through her last weeks.

First, the home turf has to be re-negotiated with their father, Vic. He would rather have Patsy's illness to himself than face the fruit of his loins who've returned in all his appalling likeness. In particular he can't stomach the sight of his son, Bo, and banishes him to live in the shed.

Bo is out on parole. He entertains his dear old ma with readings from a Jackie Kennedy biog. and teaches her a thing or two about the limitations of a life lived in moderation. The sisters, Josie, Nadia and Vera settle into their old single beds and crash diets, hardly bearing to be together after all these years and hardly bearing to be apart. They play nursies -- Florence Nightingales from hell. Each of them is sure that she alone can imbue Patsy's last weeks with meaning. But Patsy doesn't care to be meaningful, she wants flights of fancy and fun.

As tension mounts between Bo and his father, Bo becomes Patsy's guide on surreal day trips, enthusiastically sharing her morphine euphoria.

In the end, Patsy's greatest wish is for peace...peace above all...but of course peace isn't part of this family's gene pool. [More]