Starring: Rachel Griffiths, David Roberts, Sandy Winton
Director: Pip Karme
Rated: M
AT a critical stage in her life Pamela Drury (played by Rachel Griffiths) chooses to forgo being married and having a family.
Me Myself I opens with her winning one of many awards for her investigative journalism. She is at the top of her profession.
At 35, however, something is missing. She has not been able to sustain a long-term relationship and her domestic life provides no anchor for her successful career. She begins to fantasise about the choice she made 15 years earlier to forgo a marriage proposal and wonders what her life would be like had she made another decision. Pamela’s fantasy becomes a reality and she gets to experience the life upon which she muses. Reality bites!
Director Pip Karmel is the right age to know the scene and her writing and direction in Me Myself I catch the dilemma very well.
Pamela is a competent, likable, but driven woman. The central question in her life is “Am I really happy?” Her fantasy-come-to-life as a suburban wife and mother is filled with keen observations of the boredom and distance some people experience in marriage.
This film is a window into the frustration in many young Australian families and the exasperation of being a parent to growing children. These stories of silence, infidelity and being taken for granted are not told with anger in this film, but with humour and humanity. It ends up being very affirming of the best values in marriage and family life.
