Brenda Blethyn stars in this amiable, if directionless little Australian picture which is part coming-of-age comedy and part mid-life crisis. She is Jean, a stand-up comic who abandoned what she remembers as a promising British TV career in the 1970s to follow her pop-singer fiance back to his native Oz. Now she's left with a broken marriage, and two teenage boys to look after: Tim (Khan Chittenden) and Mark (Richard Wilson).

Jean is also flogging the dying horse of her smutty comedy routine in local clubs; she's Archie Rice with fewer laughs, and the querulous, plaintive tremor of Blethyn's voice is much in evidence, on stage and off. This heartfelt, good-natured film grew on me, and Blethyn always commands attention.