Main Cast: Oliver Reed, Amanda Donohoe, Georgina Hale, Frances Barber
Release Year: 1986
Country: UK
Run Time: 118 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Nicolas Roeg directed this dreamy erotic adventure film based on two Australian non-fiction best-sellers -- Lucy Irvine's Castaway and Gerald Kingsland's The Islander. Both best-sellers concern former clerk and waitress Lucy Irvine's response to an advertisement placed by writer Gerald Kingsland in a magazine seeking "a wife for a year on a tropical island." Irvine responded to the ad and, after learning that she would have to pay for the trip to the island of Tuin (between New Guinea and Australia), the not-very-happy couple took off to Tuin for a thirteen-month stay, after which Irvine returned to England alone. The film stars Oliver Reed as Gerald Kingsland and Amanda Donohue as Lucy Irvine. On the island, Gerald and Lucy romp around au natural and try not to get in each other's way. But then Gerald suffers a foot infection and Lucy, in spite of having seafood for every meal, begins to drastically lose weight. Gerald also gets crabby because Lucy withholds sexual pleasure from her new husband. After a year of bliss, Lucy decides to return to the British rat race, while Gerald tries to stick it out in his new island cultural environment. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Todd Rippon - Rod; Len Peihopa - Ronald; Virginia Hey - Janice; Sarah Harper - Swimming Teacher; Stephen Jenn - Shop Manager; Sorrel Johnson - Lara; John Sessions - Man in Pub; Paul Reynolds - Mike Kingsland; Sean Hamilton - Geoffrey Kingsland; Arthur Cox - Manager; Joseph Blatchley - Registrar; Gordon Honeycombe - TV Newscaster; Tony Rickards - Jason; Simon Dormandy - Jackson
Credit
Stuart Rose - Art Director, Selwyn Roberts - Associate Producer, Liz Mullinar - Casting, Mary Selway - Casting, Nic Ede - Costume Designer, Nicolas Roeg - Director, Tony Lawson - Editor, Peter Shaw - Executive Producer, Kate Bush - Composer (Music Score), Stanley Myers - Composer (Music Score), Hans Zimmer - Composer (Music Score), Andrew Sanders - Production Designer, Harvey Harrison - Cinematographer, Rick McCallum - Producer, Allan Scott - Screenwriter, Lucy Irvine - Book Author
In 1981, Irvine responded to a "Writer seeks 'wife' for year on tropical island" advertisement placed by Kingsland in the London magazine Time Out. Chosen by Kingsland from over fifty applicants, Irvine agreed to marry him in order to satisfy Australian immigration restrictions before they travelled to Tuin. She was twenty-five and Kingsland forty-nine.
After a year on the island she returned to England and wrote her memoirs.
The film features a song by British artist Kate Bush, "Be Kind to My Mistakes", that later appeared on the 1997 re-release of her album Hounds of Love.
