Reviews
Dragonfly
Reviewed by Stephanie Daly-Parks
Last Sunday saw "Dragonfly", a contemporary social realist drama not unlike some of Mike Leigh's work but with a surprising twist. Elsie is an 86 year old, fairly isolated woman who becomes dependent after a fall. Her son John, out of guilt, arranges social care providers to assist his mother. The social carers lack of care is witnessed by the unknown neighbour Colleen who offers her neighbour Elsie proper care and support, along with her American bull terrier Sabre who has a penchant for digging up Elsie's suburban flower bed laid out by her son.
The friendship between the two women grows strong and grows in intimacy. We understand Colleen's social awkwardness is partly due to her mother rejecting her when she was 8 years old and she was brought up in care - hence the strong and supportive relationship with her dog. The son rarely visits his mother, but he arrives and cannot comprehend why a young woman would want to offer an old neighbour help for no payment. He has a view that Colleen wants to take advantage of his mother's vulnerability by stealing from her as Colleen is on benefits and has no gainful employment - and that she has a dangerous dog. The final scenes show the downward spiral where suspicion, lack of awareness, ignorance and fear lead to dark places.
The friendship between the two women grows strong and grows in intimacy. We understand Colleen's social awkwardness is partly due to her mother rejecting her when she was 8 years old and she was brought up in care - hence the strong and supportive relationship with her dog. The son rarely visits his mother, but he arrives and cannot comprehend why a young woman would want to offer an old neighbour help for no payment. He has a view that Colleen wants to take advantage of his mother's vulnerability by stealing from her as Colleen is on benefits and has no gainful employment - and that she has a dangerous dog. The final scenes show the downward spiral where suspicion, lack of awareness, ignorance and fear lead to dark places.