Jucy

One of the films presented at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival is Louise Alston's opera prima, Jucy, which contains a Jane Eyre-related subplot:

Jucy
Director: Louise Alston
# Country: Australia
# Year: 2010
# Language: English
# Producer: Kelly Chapman
# Executive Producer: Steve Cooper, Steve Kearney, Chris Adams
# Screenplay: Stephen Vagg

Jackie (Francesca Gasteen) and Lucy (Cindy Nelson) are two twentysomething best friends who’ve made an art of not doing much. They’re so inseparable that they’ve earned the collective moniker “Jucy.” Working together in an alternative video store, they smoke pot, play video games and actively encourage each other’s eccentricities and often delusional world view. Hectored mercilessly by their families for their various failings and the perceived negative impact that their relationship is having on each other, the pair sets out to prove that they are capable of living grown-up lives. Determined to defend their friendship and widen their world, the girls participate in a local theatre company’s updated version of Jane Eyre, a pursuit that inevitably draws new players into Jucy’s sphere and threatens everything the girls hold dear, including their bond. Confident and unconventional in its depiction of female relationships, Jucy is expansive in tone, moving from the zany details of the everyday into a nuanced and dramatic portrayal of a friendship at a crossroads. Buoyed by the impressive comedic skills of Gasteen and Nelson, Jucy navigates the field between laughter and tears with energy and grace. (Jane Schoettle)

The trailer can be watched here.

The Globe and Mail has reviewed the film:

This good-natured Australian “womance” follows two co-dependent twentysomething friends, the flamboyant, slightly unstable Jackie, and the overweight, underachieving Lucy. Together they end up acting in a community-theatre adaptation of Jane Eyre, which tests their friendship. (Liam Lacey)

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV