A Change in the Weather

“It’s only when you get to the end that you know if there’s any mean­ing,” says James (Stephen Lowe) while dis­cussing the qual­i­ty of an in-devel­op­ment the­atre pro­duc­tion with actress Lydia (Anna Mot­tram). It’s a self-ref­er­en­tial state­ment which dares us to per­se­vere with this film so that we can see for our­selves what to make it. Whether Jon Sanders’ A Change in the Weath­er is an ambling delight, or if its attempt at a less sen­sa­tion­alised style of nar­ra­tive, makes it more mun­dane expe­ri­ence is dif­fi­cult to say. It’s an inward look­ing film which pur­sues ques­tions of how we rem­e­dy our flaws through projection.

This charm­ing albeit slow-paced piece fol­lows a the­atre troupe as they work­shop a play mir­ror­ing the lives of aged com­pa­ny direc­tor Dan (Bob Goody) and his actress wife of 40 years, Lydia. Rela­tion­ships are explored in inter­est­ing and grad­u­al­ly more intense ways, as the film high­lights the mat­u­ra­tion of long out­grown part­ner­ships. In an intrigu­ing open­ing inter­view with Lydia, ques­tions range from the pleas­ant to the intru­sive, and the sub­tle­ty of the scene pro­vides a unique style of real­is­tic ten­sion. From here the film sad­ly drops into a void of sub­stance as only minor seeds are sown for the even­tu­al climax.

Where the film excels, how­ev­er, is in the nat­u­ral­is­tic flow of the dia­logue accom­pa­nied by won­der­ful per­for­mances that pro­vide some tru­ly hon­est depic­tions of self-ques­tion­ing artists. The blend of impro­vised and script­ed dia­logue (co-writ­ten by Mot­tram her­self) cre­ates a per­fect bal­ance of awk­ward­ness, rep­e­ti­tion and, iron­i­cal­ly, imper­fec­tion. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this style also leaves itself open to forced expo­si­tion that is almost jar­ring with­in the con­fines of banal conversation.

A Change in the Weath­er is a clev­er­ly pre­sent­ed work that sim­ply lacks for back­bone. For those will­ing to process it, how­ev­er, a unique love sto­ry (or lack of love sto­ry?) shines through. Pro­vid­ing just enough cru­cial moments of ten­sion, it man­ages to save itself from the reluc­tant­ly built plot arc that could have so eas­i­ly been. It’s a com­mend­able exper­i­ment into the ground­work of film­mak­ing, but regret­tably lacks any real emo­tion­al impact.