Maybe This Time

1981

Johnny's comments:

Maybe This Time is a 1981 drama about Fran (Judy Morris) who is about to turn 30 and has hit the wall in her love life and in her job. She works as a tutor at a university under Paddy (Mike Preston) but is unfulfilled. She's also in a relationship with a married political staffer Stephen (Bill Hunter) and seems to be leaning towards joining him in Canberra permanently until his wife Meredith (Jude Kuring) decides to make herself known and becomes unexpected friends with Fran. She decides to head back to her old home town for some respite and cops a dose of guilt from her mother about her being 30 and unmarried. Fran then meets old friend Alan (Ken Shorter) and starts going out with him but she really isn't into the relationship and he proves to be frequently inadequate. Fran heads back to Sydney and continues as a tutor and takes up with Paddy who seems great until she finds that he's sleeping with one of the students plus Stephen comes back into her life, newly divorced and wanting Fran back in his life. So, who will Fran choose?

Frustrating and somewhat dated drama about a woman trying to be free but constrained by society's norms and her own poor choices. Fran constantly bounces between men with great ease but she's never satisfied and moans about wanting to settle down even though she's clearly not ready to. It leads to a fairly predictable end which will probably continue the cycle in another country. Judy Morris was the queen of adult drama through this period, so she's well cast here and all the main male roles are well done but Fran is such a frustrating character that she's hard to get into and be on her side.

Judy Morris film clip (collages below)