Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Luke Buckmaster

Life Could Be a Dream review – a powerful, polished Australian film about domestic abuse

Film still from Life Could Be a Dream showing a 40-year-old woman called Sarah and her teenage son, Otis, at the beach
Maeve Dermody as Sarah and Sonny McGee as her son Otis in Life Could Be a Dream. Photograph: Maslow Entertainment

There’s something instantly unsettling about seeing a fully dressed person underwater – a visual motif perhaps most memorably deployed in The Piano, with Holly Hunter pulled into the ocean in full Victorian garb.

The domestic abuse-themed Australian drama Life Could Be a Dream opens with a similarly haunting vision: a woman in a white dress suspended beneath the surface, engulfed in drifting clouds of blackness, the frame bathed in murky blue tones.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.