June Again

June has been living in a care home for years because of dementia. One day, in a way nobody expected, her mind clears and for a few days she can think as she used to. She goes outside, and what she sees does not sit well with her: the family wallpaper business is about to go under, her son and her daughter are not speaking, and both have made a mess of their own lives. June does not know how many days she has left to put any of it right. J. J. Winlove's film is an Australian production. The mould is familiar: a countdown, a scattered family, an attempt to gather it. What lifts the film above the mould is Noni Hazlehurst's performance; she does not make June likeable, she keeps her domineering and interfering, because that is the whole point of the character. What drove the children away from their mother is not the illness but the June who came before it. The telling accepts that and offers no easy reconciliation.