Director
JJ Winlove

Starring
Noni Hazlehurst, Claudia Karvan, Stephen Curry


I went to the screening of June Again, and a week later I’m still feeling the emotional effects of it. In part this is because it is a genuinely moving tale, but the larger part is the brutal relatability to much of the subject matter. This is a film that anyone who has been touched by dementia or the premature loss of a parent will be able to connect with on a deep level.

June Again is the story of June (Noni Hazlehurst), a sixty-something woman living in a nursing home, suffering the effects of dementia. She has two grown children, Ginny and Devon (Claudia Karvan and Stephen Curry) who visit along with their respective families. One night June seems to suffer some kind of mini-stroke, and when she awakens she is free of any immediate signs of her dementia and has no recollection of the 5 years spent in the nursing home. Doctors are amazed, but advise that the re-awakening will be short lived, so June sets about trying to fix the perceived issues in each of her children’s lives while she still can.

There’s a scene early on in the film where Ginny sees June for the first time since her intellectual return and realizes that June recognizes her (something that hasn’t happened for years). There is this overwhelming sense of regaining someone who was long lost. Claudia Karvan does an incredible job at conveying this next-level sense of elation at being able to reconnect with her Mum who was in essence gone from this world.  Noni Hazlehurst’s performance as June is brilliant, layered, heartbreaking and hilarious, which should in part be credited to the levity created by writer/director JJ Winlove. To have blended a great deal of humour into such an emotionally heavy subject couldn’t have been an easy task, but it was one that Winlove was up to.

One of the strengths of this film is how it explores what’s important in life. For June, ensuring that her children are happy and productive is key to her legacy, but she doesn’t fail to reflect on the missed opportunities in her own life prior to her dementia diagnosis. Unfortunately the film isn’t perfect in its execution. For all its goodwill, it’s still let down by unresolved issues in the plot, namely a dead relationship between Ginny and her husband, and a sleazy businessman who is running June’s family business into the ground. Thankfully the thoughtful acting and sensitivity in much of the script makes up for its shortcomings.

If the subject matter is something that you can relate to, June Again is a film that will stay with you, and even if it’s not relatable, it’s still emotionally provocative. Given I saw this in the lead up to Mother’s Day (a difficult day in my family) it certainly hit me on multiple levels. This is definitely one to watch with the tissues at the ready.

June Again is in cinemas now.



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