My Mistress

The fact that My Mistress looks out of place, set as it is in suburban Queensland, doesn't detract from the director's ambition and obvious promise.

Debut director Stephen Lance makes it all look pretty enough, but the film is so staid, safe and polite it's often just plain dull. If only the film had a real taste for the transgressions it gingerly depicts, it could have been Australia's Blue Velvet.

While it's good that Lance eschews the conventional, the question becomes, what does he have in its place? I was left unsure of the answer.

In the story of Kate's fractured relationship with her son is a tough and potentially tender film, but Beart and her pout get in the way.

Most of the problems in My Mistress stem from the fact that it is steeped in cliché.

Stephen Lance takes your typically angst-ridden, po-faced Australian teen drama, and dresses it up in a full-body latex suit.

My Mistress is a story of coming of age and sexual awakening, but there are times when it feels like little more than a sleazy take on a boy meets girl movie.

Stephen Lance's debut feature is like a wet dream: a fantasy scenario that titillates but never reaches a satisfactory climax, despite impressive performances by Harrison Gilbertson as the obsessed teen & Emmanuelle Beart as the provocative mistress

Flaws and all, My Mistress is worth pondering, especially if you're curious about the odd place of mothers in current Australian cinema.