Returning to her home village, puppeteer Judy (an excellent Mia Wasikowska) and husband Punch (Damon Herriman) are looking to resurrect their careers. Punch likes the grog a little too much. But when he accidentally throws the baby out the window and beats Judy to a pulp leaving her for dead, revenge is the order of the day.
A convincingly irreverent first 20 minutes or so of bawdy, rustic medieval village life sadly falls away as the narrative drifts into witchery and repetitive unexplored misogyny. Punch struts, Judy plots. But director Mirrah Foulkes, in her feature debut, struggles with a narrative that fails to effectively address the traditional Punch & Judy storyline from a female perspective. There is, however, a great soundtrack from François Tétaz (Wolf Creek, The Square).
Damon Herriman collected the 2020 AACTA award for best actor (surprising considering he was up against, among others, Timothée Chalamet (The King) and Hugo Weaving (Hearts & Bones).
Rating: 50%
Director: Mirrah Foulkes
Writer: Mirrah Foulkes
Main cast: Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Stoker), Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Nightingale)
An Opinion or Two 