MIFF: Alphabet Lane is a confusing, beautiful mess

Alphabet Lane, James Litchfield's directorial feature film debut, premieres to lukewarm reception, Matthew Parkhill reviews.

Alphabet Lane, the directorial feature film debut for young Cooma native James Litchfield, premiered at ACMI's Cinema One for Melbourne International Film Festival.

Shot on the property of its director's family's cattle farm in the hills of the Snowy Mountains in Cooma, Alphabet Lane is an undeniably beautiful film that otherwise misses its mark. While it premiered to a warm reception at ACMI's cinema one in Federation Square, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a mark it was even trying to hit.

Denton (Left) and Cobham-Hervey (Right) deliver perhaps misguided performances, often tenderising critically tense moments. (Image: MIFF)

A romance drama full of surprising twists and unconventional plot points, Alphabet Lane follows young Sydney couple Anna and Jack, who move to Cooma for Jack's new job. An engineer, Jack, played by Nicholas Denton, passes Anna on his way home from work as she drives to her hospital night shift. The two rarely see each other, and the isolation on their rural farmhouse stakes a wedge into their relationship, leading them to create imaginary friends that they write letters to.

The basic premise of Alphabet Lane is very strong. I wholeheartedly looked forward to seeing a couple teeter on breaking up under the stress of life, only to find each other through letters meant for their imaginary counterparts; however, I couldn't help but feel disappointed and confused.

Alphabet Lane starts slow, following Anna wandering around the property, doing farm chores, before meeting Jack on her drive to work on the dirt driveway to their home. Straight away, you can sense tension; Tilda Cobham-Hervey is clearly a very talented actor, and despite the sensual dialogue between Anna and Jack, you can see distance in Cobham-Hervey's eyes. Director Litchfield displays some strong understanding of building a scene; when the two do meet, they park metres away and walk the gravel between them to exchange an obligatory hug and 'I love you.' Later, in the middle of their imaginary pen pal relationship, the distance closes and instead they park beside each other, coyly remarking that they'd like the other to post a letter for them.

The Snowy Mountains make for a great setting in Alphabet Lane. (Image: MIFF)

But here is where the confusion begins. Jack introduces imaginary farmer friend Joe as a snide joke about their loneliness, which leads Anna to meet Michelle, Joe's imaginary wife. However, while Anna begins to obsess over Joe and Michelle as a vehicle to convey her frustration with living rurally and away from friends, Jack seems determined to stay in their 'middle of nowhere' homestead. There's no clue for why Anna and Jack are really in Cooma or why they needed to live so far out of town, but they certainly aren't alone.

Jack is surrounded by other engineers and workers at his job, and Anna's hospital job would, presumably, put her in the middle of town culture. At one point, Anna states 'What patients?' when her coworker tells her off for using the patients' gym, only to be called into the ER to treat a drunken brawl and then later on in the film treat a full waiting room. Jack even meets a real Michelle, who becomes a big plot point later on, but still the pair seem to insist they are just too lonely.

Early in the film, the couple is visited by friends from Sydney, who spend a good minute exclaiming about how wonderful and beautiful the property is (perhaps a subtle advertisement for Hazeldean Litchfield, the director's family cattle farm?). After a dinner with the rough-but-honest farmer Corey, exceptionally portrayed by actor Henry Nixon, the friends leave, to which one says to the other, 'What the fuck are they doing out here?' I can't help but feel that wraps up the movie. Jack is useless at farm work with Corey, and his side-jobs on the farm portray some sort of side-plot of discovering masculinity or a sense of belonging, but to why Anna or the imaginary friends exist alongside that distraction is lost on me. Anna is supposed to love Jack, but the two have little chemistry outside of dry lovey dialogue portrayed by both lead actors in a contrived, sensual taste. We don't get to see why Anna loves Jack, and we don't witness them really find each other through their imaginary friends, as Jack seems to shut down their only hope for reigniting their love by condemning the imaginary friends to a car crash.

Cory (Left) asks Jack (Back) why he didn't move closer to town where his coworkers live. (Image: MIFF)

In the Q&A post screening, Denton was asked how he approached acting out Jack and his relationship with Anna, to which he said that while shooting Alphabet Lane, he would ask Litchfield if he liked his portrayal of Jack, only for Litchfield to shrug. Litchfield also revealed that the imaginary friends plot point was a story idea he tinkered with on and off. The pair meant this as positives in the filmmaking process, but I think there was just not enough heavy-handed direction, as Cobham-Hervey and Denton just appeared like they didn't even know each other and instead were flirting their way through an otherwise serious relationship conundrum. Denton even joked that he and Cobham-Hervey created their own back story for why the couple were in Cooma in the first place, as if there was some unspeakable thing like a baby dying that led them to not talk about their past, but this wasn't conveyed in the film. Instead, I'm dropped in the middle of two crazy people flirting through their alter egos while they stare off into beautifully empty and morose sunsetted hills.

And then there's the real Michelle. This poor lady, who recently moved to Cooma and even comments that there's no reason Jack can't make friends at their job, becomes the unwilling target of Anna and Jack's proxy divorce. While I won't reveal her fate, I wish that at least Litchfield had leaned more into a psychological horror than the campy comedic ending we got. A psychological thriller bender might have picked up the energy in the film's latent third act and matched the eerie, surreal soundtrack by Mark Bradshaw, which at times made otherwise sweet scenes creepy and uncanny. There's a dichotomy present in Alphabet Lane where it could've gone one way or the way, just like Anna and Jack, but instead went nowhere, seeming to end up back where it started.

Ultimately, despite a strong cast who earnestly believed in the project, Alphabet Lane is not much about anything. There are some funny quips and strong performances from the cast, alongside beautiful B-roll of Cooma countryside, but there's a chasm of possibility that went sorely unexplored. I can't help but laugh at the jokes of 'city people moving to the countryside', but I feel that should've been left to the wayside.

2/5.