''South Solitary'' is a 2010 Australian

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

set on

South Solitary Island South Solitary Island Light is an active lighthouse on South Solitary Island, an island within the Solitary Islands Marine Park, about northeast of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. The lighthouse is located at the summit of the islan ...

and directed by

Shirley Barrett Shirley Barrett (1961 – 3 August 2022) was an Australian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. Her first film '' Love Serenade'' won the Caméra d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. She wrote and directed two other feature films '' Wal ...

Plot

Meredith Appleton (

Miranda Otto Miranda Otto (born 16 December 1967) is an Australian actress. She is the daughter of actors Barry and Lindsay Otto and the paternal half-sister of actress Gracie Otto. Otto began her acting career in 1986 at age 18 and appeared in a variety of ...

) arrives on South Solitary island with her elderly uncle George Wadsworth (

Barry Otto Barry Otto (born 1941) is an Australian actor, primarily of Australian cinema, cinema, and an amateur artist. Early life Barry Otto was born in Brisbane in 1941, the son of a butcher. He trained as an artist but switched to acting. Career Otto ...

). Her uncle has been sent as the new Head Lighthouse Keeper after the suicide of the last one. Her uncle is shown to be a gruff man very critical of the slightest disorder. Meredith meets the local girl Nettie (Annie Martin), whom she asks to care for her lamb. She then meets the mother, Alma Stanley (

Essie Davis Esther Davis (born 19 January 1970) is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in ''Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' and its film adaptation, '' Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears'', and as Amelia Vanek in ''Th ...

) and her two sons, Tom ( Reef Ireland) and Robbie ( Benson Adams). The father, Harry Stanley (

Rohan Nichol Rohan Nichol (born 4 July 1976) is an Australian television and film actor. His roles include Raymus Antilles in '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith'', Aaron Collingwood in '' All Saints'', and Detective Luc Palermo in ''headLand ...

) takes George for a tour of inspection where George disapproves of the state of loose animals, the absence of lighthouse keeper Jack Fleet (

Marton Csokas Marton Paul Csokas (, hu, Csókás Márton Pál; born 30 June 1966) is a Hungarian-New Zealand actor of film, stage, and television. A graduate of the Toi Whakaari drama school, he has worked extensively in Australia and Hollywood, along with ...

), and a previous history of lighthouse outages. The first night, as Meredith is preparing tea for her uncle, she hears baby birds chirping in the stovepipe so she douses the fire and is not able to prepare hot tea for her uncle. Jack Fleet has a panic attack on his watch, brought on by his war trauma. Nettie introduces Meredith to the unreliable emergency message system using homing pigeons. When Nettie tries to send a routine message that all is well on South Solitary the birds return to their coop thus rendering the system useless. While having afternoon tea with Alma, Meredith reveals she is unable to give birth to the unsympathetic mother. She lost her fiancé in the war, then became pregnant through an affair with a married man, but complications meant her womb was removed. Making friends with South Solitary’s strange residents is hard for Meredith who finds the isolation difficult. Harry visits her during her bath, and seduces her. Sent to fetch her dad, Nettie sees Meredith and Harry in bed together and tells her mother who tells George, and the family is next seen quitting the island on the next passing ship. While pushing up a store of supplies from the beach without Stanley to help, George overly exerts himself, becomes very ill with a heart attack and dies. Jack must keep solitary watch as there is no one else and proves himself a sensitive and capable keeper. Together the pair bury George and provide a eulogy for him. A whole gale quickly forms stranding Meredith at the lighthouse with Fleet for several days during which she learns how to turn the light and the

Flag semaphore Flag semaphore (from the Ancient Greek () 'sign' and - (-) '-bearer') is a semaphore system conveying information at a distance by means of visual signals with hand-held flags, rods, disks, paddles, or occasionally bare or gloved hands. Inform ...

system and gets to know him. She conveys her sense of loneliness to Jack and her desire for a sense of permanence, with more conversation than Jack is used to, causing him to have a panic attack with hallucinations of a ship in distress, so that he runs off into the wilderness. Covering the island, Meredith finds her lost lamb which Jack helps her to recover. Meanwhile Jack sees a ship in the distance and signals for it to pick up Meredith who wants to stay. She begs him not to send her away, but he finds it too stressful having close company and refuses. As she leaves they kiss, and arrange to keep in touch, even that Jack will visit when he next has leave. Meredith looks out for him from the water then catches sight of the semaphore message he has displayed; she is seen smiling as she draws away from South Solitary.

Cast

... Meredith Appleton *

... Jake Fleet *

... Harry Stanley *

... Alma Stanley *

... George Wadsworth *Annie Martin ... Nettie Stanley

Reviews

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film a 71% with a rating of 5.6 out of 10. Out of 17 reviews counted, 12 gave it a positive review and 6 gave it a negative review.Rotten Tomatoes
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:South Solitary 2010 films 2010 romance films Films directed by Shirley Barrett Australian romance films 2010s English-language films