Movie Review: Mrs Carey's Concert

As a documentary-maker, Bob Connolly's patience is one of his strengths. Photo / Supplied

It's been 10 years since the great Australian documentarian Bob Connolly made a movie. Probably his silence has had something to do with the untimely death of his wife, Robin Anderson, who succumbed to a rare and aggressive cancer in 2002, just after the release of their film Facing the Music, about the battle to save the Music Department at the University of Sydney.

Anderson's death brought to an end a remarkable partnership, which produced the unforgettable Rats in the Ranks about the political machinations in Sydney but goes back almost 30 years to the Oscar-nominated First Contact, the first of a trilogy in the New Guinea highlands.

Quite why anyone would schedule this small and perfectly formed film in the middle of the documentary-rich film festival is anyone's guess but let's hope it doesn't miss the audience it deserves.

The title character is Karen Carey, the head music teacher at a Sydney private girls' school (where Connolly's daughters were pupils), preparing for the school's biennial end-of-year concert at the Opera House. Her dedication to her mission is absolute and every girl in the school has to participate.

The relationship between Mrs Carey and the musically gifted girls - and her battle of wills with the reluctant ones, personified by the petulant, passive-aggressive and very smart Iris - is the essence of the film's drama.

In the end, of course, magic happens, but what makes the film special is its patient watchfulness.

The Connolly-Anderson style was always that you need to stick around for months - years if that's what it takes - until you become invisible to the people you're observing. His new collaborator, Raymond, is plainly right in tune with that, and the fruit of their shared labour is a pleasure to watch.

Stars: 4/5
Directors: Bob Connolly, Sophie Raymond
Running time: 95 mins
Rating: PG (coarse language)
Verdict: Patient and engrossing

- TimeOut