A beautifully rooted film with a spiritual grip. Charlotte Gainsbourg is the French-born wife of an Aussie man who suddenly dies, leaving her with several kids in a ramshackle house near a grand Moreton Bay fig tree. She and the daughter (played as a bright dreamer by very fine Morgana Davies) connect with the tree as a refuge, canopy, and mysterious source of nature’s nurture. Call it sappy, and you’re missing it. Julie Bertuccelli’s wonderfully shot and acted movie is a family drama without the gaseous bloat of the more highly touted The Tree of Life and perhaps the most deeply sensual Aussie film made by an outsider since Fred Zinnemann’s The Sundowners in 1960. (2011) — David Elliott
This movie is not currently in theaters.