The Year My Voice Broke

The Year My Voice Broke (1987) is an Australian coming of age film. I am prejudiced in favor of Australian films, as they have a certain straight-forwardness that I find refreshing. Unfortunately, this one did not draw me in. Part of the problem was very thick accents, but the main problem was a story that lacked originality, and characters that I didn't find appealing. We have a nerd who is a lifetime buddy with an attractive female classmate, who is his constant sexual fantasy girl. She has a fling with the school bad boy. The town folk think of her as a slut. That's pretty much it, other than the ending, which I won't give away.

NUDITY REPORT

There was no nudity at all, although the plot could have used some

DVD info from Amazon.

no widescreen
no features

Scoop's comments

What is the story with director John Duigan? I can't figure that guy out. I guess he really enjoys variety.

In addition to this sensitive film, he has done Sirens, Wide Sargasso Sea, Paranoid, Molly, The Leading Man, and Lawn Dogs. Does anybody see any pattern there? That's a pretty wide variation of tones, topics, and styles.

And how does "Paranoid" fit in with the others?

The Critics Vote

Consensus: three stars. Maltin 3/4, Apollo 77/100
Rotten Tomatoes summary. Five articles on file
The film won Best Picture from the Oz Academy

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.2, Apollo users 67/100.

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+.