TV Week - 3/1/98

Topless Women Talk About Their Lives

(Rated M, 89 minutes) DON'T be deceived by the title, for this is not a movie for the raincoat brigade.

In fact, it's about as sexy as John Howard in bike shorts.

Topless Women began life as a series of four-minute, selfcontained TV episodes in New Zealand. The show's popularity led to funding for this feature film, which was shot on weekends over six months.

Documentary in style, this drama-comedy came close to losing its star, Danielle Cormack, when she fell pregnant.

Rather than postponing the shoot or recasting the lead role of Liz, writer-director Harry Sinclair made the pregnancy the central plot element.

Certainly, there are times when subplots threaten to throw the film off the rails but the progress of the pregnancy makes for interesting viewing.

The film begins with Liz (Cormack) realising she's a week late for her aborlion appointment at a fam~ ily planning centre.

Her distress is heightened by the news that because her pregnancy has passed a certain point, the centre will not perform a termination.

This leaves Liz in a state of utter dismay. How will she deal with her sexcraved boyfriend, let alone the father of the child (a man she's never loved)?

Danielle Cormack stars as the very pregnant Liz.

Cormack and Joel Tobeck (father-to-be, Nell) are deft in their handling of difficult roles, portraying characters who are fearful of their uncertain future.

Also drifting in and out of Liz's life is Ant (lan Hughes), a wayward scriptwalter who invites all the locals to the premiere of his appalling documentary about barebreasted women (hence the title of this film).

Given that much of the script was written on the run and filmed with minireal rehearsal time, irs no surprise that Topless Women is dramatically and comedically inconsistent. -k,k

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