Rotten Tomatoes
Suggestions will appear as you start typing. Submit search Movies Tv shows RT App New News Showtimes

High Tide

Play trailer Poster for High Tide PG-13,  1987,  1h 44m,  Comedy/ Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist 93% 15 Reviews Tomatometer 83% 250+ Ratings Popcornmeter
93% Tomatometer 15 Reviews 83% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Lillie (Judy Davis) is an alcoholic drifter who makes an unexpected discovery when she arrives in Eden, a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia. After setting herself up in a trailer park, the woman befriends a teenager named Ally (Claudia Karvan). Despite their age difference, the pair soon become close. But everything changes when Lillie meets Ally's grandmother, Bet (Jan Adele) ; Bet turns out to be Lillie's mother, meaning that Ally is the grown daughter she abandoned decades before.

Critics Reviews

View More
Pauline Kael The New Yorker Sep 11, 2023
Gillian Armstrong and her scenarist don’t connect the dotted lines, and you don’t want them to. Go to Full Review
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Jan 1, 2000
3/4
High Tide is a somber and muted film, very well acted. Go to Full Review
Elizabeth Pincus Gay Community News (Boston) Sep 13, 2022
Despite High Tide's heavy- handedness, something satisfying comes in watching a commercial film focused entirely on independent women. Go to Full Review
Jas Keimig The Stranger (Seattle, WA) Dec 8, 2021
Though the tale skews melodramatic in parts, it's a tender study of grief and motherhood, all told in hues of blue. Go to Full Review
Jason Shawhan Nashville Scene Sep 10, 2021
Get an early start on your Mother's Day viewing with this little-seen 1987 Aussie drama. Go to Full Review
Michael Sragow NPR's Fresh Air Feb 3, 2021
It depicts the ties that bind -- and strangle -- with humor and compassion. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Theodore S Jul 19, 2017 Quite good Australian film about Judy Davis as a back-up singer for an Elvis impersonator stopping off in a small town only to befriend a local teenage tomboy who ends up being the daughter she gave up as a baby after the father had died. Written and directed by Gillian Armstrong, this is a smart character driven drama with a complex performance by Davis. Her character could easily have been a simply villainous character who eventually seeks redemption, but Armstrong and Davis make her character more complex than that. She's not just someone who gave up a child, but who may have actually done it for good reason for herself and the child, though that also may have been self rationalizing. It's that non-black and white presentation of the situation that makes this film so interesting. Claudia Karvan as the teenage daughter also gives a strong performance and is an equally well drawn, well rounded character by Armstrong, who is more than just a character simply wanting to know why she was abandoned. On the downside, I think the film was populated by too many colorful supporting, who were certainly entertaining, but who took away from the primary story. There's also the main contrivance of the plot the entire film centers upon, but let's not go there. Despite these minor quibbles, "High Tide" is a terrifically smart and engaging character drama. See more
Read all reviews
High Tide

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING
29th Street 73% 86% 29th Street Watchlist Clash by Night 56% 69% Clash by Night Watchlist Two Weeks in Another Town 89% 61% Two Weeks in Another Town Watchlist Chocolat 71% 67% Chocolat Watchlist Titanic Town 81% 82% Titanic Town Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Lillie (Judy Davis) is an alcoholic drifter who makes an unexpected discovery when she arrives in Eden, a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia. After setting herself up in a trailer park, the woman befriends a teenager named Ally (Claudia Karvan). Despite their age difference, the pair soon become close. But everything changes when Lillie meets Ally's grandmother, Bet (Jan Adele) ; Bet turns out to be Lillie's mother, meaning that Ally is the grown daughter she abandoned decades before.
Director
Gillian Armstrong
Producer
Sandra Levy
Screenwriter
Laura Jones
Rating
PG-13
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Box Office (Gross USA)
$15.1K
Runtime
1h 44m
Join The Newsletter Join The Newsletter Cookie Settings