Kingdom of Us

This is a curious film to watch as it depicts the struggles of a large family having to deal with the extended aftermath of their father's suicide. Told using a continuous array of professionally filmed video-diary style observations of these six sisters and one brother, we are exposed to just how mother Vikie has coped and brought up what appear to be a remarkably well adjusted family. They live a large rural home surrounded by a seemingly endless supply of memorabilia and home movies; drawings and letters and that very preponderance of content allows each of them to comment on just how they remember their dad - for those of them who actually do - some more sympathetically than others, as well as to interact with each other. It's maybe this that started to have me scratching my forehead, especially as we head into the realms of the sixteen year old lad's conversations with his mother about true love and having sex with his girlfriend of five minutes. It all started to look a little too contrived for the cameras. Even the tantrums - and those really only emanated from one daughter - seemed designed to perk up our attention as this somewhat prurient glimpse into their lives became something far more intrusive and far less objective. It was as if we were watching a ninety minutes documentary on what the "Waltons" might really have been like, complete with all the concomitant melodrama of making up, falling out and moving forward with their lives. Certainly it can't have been an easy task for this woman to rear a brood of such energy and diversity, but perhaps condensing it into forty or fifty minutes might have made me less suspicious that there was a great deal of playing to camera here. It's interesting and at times moving, but in the end I just wasn't convinced.