What starts as a somewhat conventional tale of a good girl being seduced by the bad boy, turns into a multilayered story. One that touches on the devastating impact of illness and grief and the power that love of one’s offspring brings to fruition. It’s all told through the filter of a teenage coming of age scenario.
Milla (Eliza Scanlen) is from the first view, an innocent appearing girl going through the usual changes and challenges that face all schoolgirls of her young age. When she meets Moses (Toby Wallace), she is mysteriously seduced by his bad-boy demeanor but obvious intelligence.
At first, looking all the world like a crackhead with his shrunken eyes and manic energy, his wisdom and insight as it unfolds are unanticipated. As the story expands, we meet Milla’s surprisingly dysfunctional family, psychiatrist father Henry (Ben Mendelsohn), and drugged-out mother, Anna (Essie Davis).
As the motivations for their idiosyncrasies become apparent, you get to see beneath the obvious and grow to care about them. Deeply sad and effecting, Babyteeth is an examination of the impact grief makes on one family and how some of their actions while seeming misguided at first show true care and feeling in the end.
Rob Hudson
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