Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Give It Up For Marvellous Mia

Lacking some interesting TV now that the well-scripted, dramatic paragons of Yasmin's Getting Married and Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader are no longer with us?

Fear not.

I'm a little late to advertise it, but I've cracked onto a great show on Foxtel that has been earning good reviews here and overseas.

In Treatment is an American drama series starring Gabriel Byrne and Melissa George (to name a few), with Byrne as Paul, a psychiatrist addressing a series of weekly patients. One such patient is Sophie, a gymnast with Olympic aspirations played by engaging young Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska. Her story begins with a suspicious injury sustained as the road to the Olympics appears closer and closer. Sophie is serious, self-loathing, cynical, smart and sincerely watchable. 18-year-old Mia fills the character with electricity and emotion, a girl who tries to find out what makes Paul tick while trying to avoid the questions that would reveal the same of her.



In real life, Wasikowska devoted much of her teen years to an athletic passion, just like an elite gymnast - in her native Canberra, she was undertaking daily training to be a professional ballet dancer before pursuing acting on a whim. It's fair to say she can relate to her character.

It really is a fantastic show with fascinating portrayals. Check it out on Showcase if you're with Foxtel/Austar or hang out for the season 1 DVD.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mia was really good in an Australian movie called "suburban mayhem".

thanks for the info

Nic said...

she looks like a french actress who was in vogue
and also in harry potter as fluer

nade00 said...

OT, but I thought some of you may be interested in this:
http://www.sportpanel.org.au/internet/sportpanel/publishing.nsf/Content/Georgia+Bonora

It is a submission to a government-related sports panel from Georgia Bonora talking about the difficulties of being a gymnast financially, and medically, and acknowledging some of the problems in the national program.

I find the comments about diet quite interesting, and also the fact she basically says she is under a lot of pressure from Peggy et al to continue gymnastics now but the monetary issue makes it very difficult especially after you have achieved all you wanted to.

On the site there are also submissions from the parents of Emma Dennis and Shona Morgan. Some valid stabs at GA there re John Hart's Olympic snub.

Mez said...

Thanks Nade. Insightful, personal late-night reading.

At last, word from the horses' mouths!

I found a similar submission from GA to a national sports panel some weeks ago while faffing about on the web, and it not only mentioned problems (and suggested solutions) with funding but with publicity problems and PROBLEMS WITH THE GYMNASTICS COMMUNITY BEING ADDRESSED AND KEPT IN THE KNOW.