Oscar and Lucinda

Based on Peter Carey’s Booker Prize-winning novel, Gillian Armstrong’s “Oscar and Lucinda” is a lyrical story about chance, fate and love. Set in the 19th century it tells the story of how two eccentric characters are brought together by fate and an obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier (Cate Blanchett) is an unconventional woman living in a society obsessed with normality. She uses her inheritance to buy a glassworks factory in Sydney. Returning from London by ship she meets Oscar Hopkins, a strange Anglican minister terrified by the ocean but compulsively attracted to gambling. When their paths meet again in Sydney they embark on an incredible mission to take a glass church into the heart of the Australian bush. With a cast of wonderful Australian and British actors, Cate Blanchett shines in a role which heralded her international film career. Laura Jones has done a good job of translating Carey’s dense novel to the screen, and Luciana Arrighi’s production design and Geoffrey Simpson’s cinematography create a sumptuous backdrop to the characters’ journeying.