The Year My Voice Broke

The life of a teen in an isolated small town is the subject of Australian writer-director John Duigan 's film, set in 1962 in New South Wales. Duigan 's coming-of-age story has many familiar elements-Danny Embling (oah Taylor) discovers his sexual attraction to a childhood playmate ( Leone Carmen as Freya), he undergoes the taunts of bullies at his school, rais against the narrow-minded views of his parents and many of the townspeople, and comes under the influence of a sympathetic adult ( Bruce Spence as Jonah, a would-be writer who lives in an abandoned railroad car). The twist is that Danny's rival for Freya's affections, Trevor ( Ben Mendelsohn ), is a Jewish jock who becomes Danny's friend by standing up to the bullies and treating Freya with more respect than the other boys do. Duigan , who had been making films in Australia since the mid-70s, broke through to U.S. audiences with this film and its sequel, Flirting , in which Noah Taylor reprises the lead role. — Tom Wiener