EW reviews two Judy Davis DVDs
Strength. That's what Judy Davis embodies, whether radiating it in her
breakthrough role as Brilliant Career's Sybylla, a young woman in 1890s
Australia determined to live independently, or preaching it as the
mother of a young man (House's Jesse Spencer) desperate to win his
abusive father's approval in Swimming Upstream's true story of Aussie swimmer
Tony Fingleton. Both films feature worthy leading men: Sam Neill matches
Davis, especially in a sweetly seductive outdoor pillow fight (lovingly
filmed by future Moulin Rouge cinemato-grapher Donald McAlpine). Geoffrey Rush's
hardened performance as father Fingleton — who secretly trains his favored
son to beat Tony — proves the only thing worse than a society trying to
keep you down is a parent on that mission. EXTRAS While Upstream's 13
deleted scenes satisfy, with more Davis, Rush, and racing, the
superficial making-of leaves you longing to hear more from Fingleton
(who wrote the screenplay, based on his autobiography). Brilliant boasts
a commentary and interview with director Gillian Armstrong (who claims
Davis didn't actually like her character); a chat with producer Margaret
Fink (who further expounds on the movie's then-controversial feminist
ending); and a featurette on Miles Franklin, who wrote the Brilliant novel as a teenager. Brilliant: A-
Upstream: B-
