Violet's Visit (Australia 1995)

The Gist:

A 15 year old girl, Violet, aka Scooter, runs away to Sydney in search of her father. Who turns out to be in a relationship with another man and very comfortable in his child free very gay life. Can they all work out how to be a family or will Violet/Scooter have to go back to her unhappy life of putting up with her mother's ever changing parade of boyfriends?

Definitely spoiler filled comments:

The “Gay couple and kid(s) become a family despite themselves” sub-genre of cheap gay flicks is not exactly a highlight of queer cinema. To tell the story you just plod along all or most of the following outline:

GAY COUPLE: We have no kids(s) and are super gay, YAY!

GAY COUPLE: We now have kid(s) because:

                             Adoption (but not the baby we wanted)

                             Friend or relative kicked the bucket

                             One of us had a kid(s) before coming out

GAY COUPLE: Having a kid(s) means we can’t be super gay any more, pout;

KID(S): You guys are fags, pout;

ALL: Let’s have a “we are learning to get along” montage;

GAY COUPLE: Oh no, despite the montage, things are not going well and we will:

                             loose the kid(s) and

                             break up as well, pout;

ALL: Never mind, thanks to another montage, things worked out and we are a family now, YAY!

Toss in some variables such as acting and directing skills mix and stir and for better or worse you’ve got yourself a movie; in the case of Violet’s Visit, for worse.

I rented the movie from Netflix where the reviews range from glowing positive “best movie ever” to complaints of thick Australian accents. I fall into the complaint crowd. Not for the accents, but rather because it was just not very good. 

It starts off as if a sappy after school special about a gay couple and a girl learning to be a family then halfway through, suddenly turns into a sappy gay themed soap opera about a man dealing with both his boyfriend of 8 years and daughter leaving him.

The daughter running away when things get tough makes sense at least as running away from trouble is one of her few established characteristics. What makes no sense is the boyfriend who had been championing the idea of the three of them living together as a family suddenly changing his mind and leaving. I can only guess this it was done to add drama to the story. However, instead of drama, having him flip his position 180 degrees out of the blue just makes everything confusing.

Beside the plot issues there is poor acting and broad stereotypes. To be gay in Australia means being into drugs, gym, poppers, gym, leaving porn magazines strewn across every available surface of your home, and gym.

All in all, not really worth the time. 

Women: 

There is annoying Violet/Scooter, her annoying mother who shows up for one scene, and a crazy homeless gal who hangs out in the background of one scene and has no lines. 

People of color:

I've a tendency to be less potentially annoyed by foreign films if they end up being all white. Then again, Sydney in the 90's would probably have had more nonwhite people than a single lone homeless, crazy, Asian woman. 

Gratuitous nudity:

There's a brief "don't really see anything" shot done for comedic purpose. As far as just showing off skin, the would-be dads spend a lot of time being relatively undressed.

• Director: Richard Turner
• Writer(s): Andrew Creagh, Barry Lowe
• Actors: Graham Harvey, David Franklin, Rebecca Smart
• 84 min
• IMDB