Not even bad in a good way

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Based solely on a tea leaf reading, superstitious and introspective Kay believes she and Louis are destined to fall in love with each other, he who she is able to convince of the same despite he just having gotten engaged to her co-worker, Cheryl. That destiny may change with the fortunes of what she sees as the next symbol of their relationship, a somewhat sickly elder tree Louis plants in their garden for their one year anniversary.This is Jane Campion's first feature, and her best. Some might point to "Angel at my Table", but I personally thought that film was terrible. "Sweetie" is funny, and has an interesting sense about it. One might even call it quirky, but it never quite goes full-quirky, keeping one foot firmly in the real world. It is sort of like Wes Anderson lite, and one has to wonder if he didn't draw some influence from Campion.

I just saw this as a new release on DVD. Usually I like Jane Campion. But this was way off. It was extremely hard to get through, and was in general just so strange. The acting was mediocre. If I was in a theater I would have walked out in the first half hour. The first 5 minutes seemed interesting especially the music, but as soon as the main character steals the boyfriends newly planted tree the picture quickly dies. Adding the severely psychotic sister to the movie just throws a massive curve ball to the movie. Yes Sweetie is somewhat key to the movie and it's titled after her, but showing 5-6 of her fits got to be too redundant.

"Sweetie" (Australian, 1989): Jane Campion is one of my favorite "newer" film makers. (See "An Angel at my Table" if you like this one!) She has a unique vision on life, and most every aspect of the film is hers - from concept and writing to the directing. Although the production values have a low-budget look, the stories are so good, and so powerful, you quickly overlook this weakness. "Sweetie" is the story of Kay, a highly neurotic young woman who is totally uncomfortable with the "everyday" world. Because of a tea leaf reading, she makes decisions that will greatly affect hers and others lives. Yep, she seems close to crazy. THEN her sister arrives - Sweetie, with a mystery man. Nope, things weren't crazy before… but NOW they are. They couldn't get crazier now. Then their parents come into the picture.

Quite a dark film that seems to lack the catharsis (or uplifting tones) of the later Campion's films. The film concentrates on psychological problems of Kay, strange, detached young women which, seemingly calm and shy, is able to shamelessly steal a just-engaged man from his fiancee. Kay's life with the boyfriend, however, turns out to be far from happy. What does she want? We do not know that until her younger sister Dawn, aka Sweetie, appears on the scene almost halfway through the film. Dawn has apparently been a spoiled baby in the family. The father even now speaks about her "talents", although he too must see that, in reality, she is a mentally handicapped person whose intellectual and emotional development has been arrested at the level of a 4-year old. Sometimes she is charming, sometimes threatening, but, most importantly, she is uninhibited and free (among other things, free to act on her whims). With the arrival of Dawn, Kay's great animosity towards her sister is immediately apparent. Instead of help and compassion of a "normal" older sister she only offers criticism and open hatred. Little by little we find what Kay wants: she wants to be Dawn. She wants to lose her repressions, she wants to be loved, admired and always forgiven, no matter what she does. Deep psychological analysis of abnormal relations between sisters reminds me of some Ingmar Bergman's works although "Sweetie" does not have the nordic broodiness.