Delivering a twisted origin story for the centuries old puppet show ‘Punch & Judy’, this debut feature from Australian filmmaker Mirrah Foulkes is a striking one at that.
Picture House Entertainment
Set in medieval times, the film focuses on the married puppeteer entertainers Punch (Damon Herriman) and Judy (Mia Wasikowska) who live in the small town of Seaside (nowhere near the sea), where they perform their show in the hope that a scout will arrive one day and take them to the big time. But when Punch’s drunken behaviour gets so bad that it leads to tragedy, the plans somewhat change, leading to murder, conspiracy and a town on the brink of chaos.
From the very off, Foulkes does a great job of establishing an anarchic atmosphere with lashings of gothic design, right down to the grimm setting and playful, Danny Elfman-eque score. The town of Seaside is one that is rejecting any notion of modernity, with the new Constable (played with a sweet sense of haplessness by Benedict Hardie) fighting a futile battle to chance their mindset when it comes to a more modern idea of law, with the townsfolk more keen for Witch trials and following the loudest voice in a room. It feels like a giant pantomime in the best possible way.
There is a feeling of something wicked about to occur from the off, and when what happens happens to set the film in motion, it is both the film at its darkest and its funniest. There’s a great sense of slapstick bumbling to the comedy that gives it a nice unpredictable edge, and particularly allows Herriman to have a ball, releasing a lot of energy into the picture as he enjoyably unlikeable Punch.
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From that catalytic moment, the film forges its MO into something that looks to correct the violent misogyny that has come to characterise the Punch and Judy story across its long history (which truly is a very violent story to be introduced to at such a young age). It becomes about Judy taking the reigns and exacting revenge for the brutal misogyny that plagues her world and ours. The film articulates this fairly well, but becomes a bit bogged down as it builds to a climax that can’t quite stick the landing.
In its final stretch the film somewhat undermines itself with a more sloppy approach to tone that its initially very promising first third had. The humour becomes more scattershot, ranging from the delightfully daft to the kinda dumb. The uncertainty that the tone has going into the final third that aims to inspire but ends up diluting Judy’s thread of empowerment. It’s not that what occurs isn’t satisfying, it just doesn’t rally up your spirit as much as you feel it probably should in order to justify its slow second act.
Judy & Punch may not quite work as a story of empowerment rising up against the patriarchy in as successful a fashion as it wants to, but for the most part it is a rather amusing, wickedly dark tale that puts its own unique spin on a well known tale that provides some deliciously dark treats as its spirals down its fable rabbit hole. A patchy but undoubtedly entertaining piece of revisionist folklore.
Judy & Punch will be released on 22nd November 2019.
