Based on the prize-winning book by Helen Garner about a headline-grabbing 1994 murder case, this riveting drama chronicles how the relationship between two Australian law students turns deadly when devotion and delusion become fatally mixed.
Joe Cinque's Consolation tells the story of one of Australia's most shocking and inexplicable crimes. Based on the award-winning book by journalist and screenwriter Helen Garner, the film delves deeply into the numerous psychological, sociological, and moral questions that swirl around the story. Most notably: why did no one do anything to prevent a crime that the accused repeatedly said she was going to commit?
It begins as a love story. In 1994, Anu Singh (Maggie Naouri), a beautiful and charismatic law student in Canberra, meets fellow student Joe Cinque (Jerome Meyer) and they quickly fall for each other. Theirs is a complex relationship. Anu is driven by ambition but racked with insecurities, and while Joe's gentle and easygoing nature offers her comfort, it also feeds the fires of her neuroses. As her mental state deteriorates, she formulates a malevolent plan to commit suicide and harm Joe. She finds support for this plan in Madhavi (Sacha Joseph), a shy young woman enthralled by Anu and her intricate web of personal problems.
It remains a mystery how, despite Anu's increasingly public proclamations of her dangerous intent, no one at the university found much cause for concern. As Joe Cinque's Consolation recounts the convoluted circumstances leading up to the tragedy, and to what some would call its scandalous outcome, this remains an enigma. But all the while, the riveting performance of Maggie Naouri as Anu keeps us as captivated as Joe must have been.
JANE SCHOETTLE