Review: 20th Century Women (15)

A mother thinks she knows best but is blissfully deluded in writer-director Mike Mills’ autobiographical drama set in the warm glow of late 1970s California.

Loosely constructed as a series of bittersweet vignettes, 20th Century Women adds a fictional gloss to the filmmaker’s memories of his free-spirited mother, played on screen by Annette Bening. It’s a peach of a role for the four-time Academy Award nominee, who glides through each nostalgia-tinged frame armed with killer one-liners (“Wondering if you’re happy is a great shortcut to being depressed,”) as she hungrily sucks on an ever present cigarette.

There is no clear narrative thrust to Mills’ freewheeling screenplay, but for all its fragmented reminiscence, the script does fully bring to life deeply flawed yet lovable characters as they wrestle with self-worth, sexual awakening and mortality.

The epicentre of the emotional whirl is bohemian mom Dorothea Fields (Bening), who gave birth to her teenage son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) when she was 40. She divorced her husband and mother and son are an inseparable unit.

They share a ramshackle home in Santa Barbara with photographer Abbie Porter (Greta Gerwig) and handyman William (Billy Crudup), who is slowly renovating the property. This madcap menagerie of misfits is completed by 17-year-old waif Julie (Elle Fanning), the object of Jamie’s hormone-driven affections.

Dorothea grows concerned that she can’t provide for her son’s emotional needs and entreats Abbie and Julie to help her shepherd Jamie across the rubicon to adulthood.

Anchored by Bening’s tour-de-force performance, 20th Century Women is a compelling family portrait. Newcomer Zumann is a revelation, holding his own in revered company. Generous laughs punctuate the soul-searching, which builds into a colourful mosaic of flashbacks, knowing voiceovers and heartbreaking regret.

On general release