David Ansen

Gillian Armstrong's women prefer life on the edge. [Ansen cites the protagonists of My Brilliant Career and Mrs. Soffel] . . . Now, in High Tide, Armstrong appears to be having second thoughts. Perhaps living dangerously isn't all it's cracked up to be. Welcome to the clean-up-your-act decade.

Her latest heroine, Lilli (Judy Davis again), is a hard-drinking drifter on the tatty edges of showbiz….

. . . . [Ally] doesn't realize this glamorousl dissolute woman is her mother.

. . . . [A]ll three leads are terrific. Davis, with her surly allure, has the most lived-in face since Jeanne Moreau, young Karvan possesses a heartbreaking honesty, and the blowzy Adele makes her character a fascinatingly ambiguous mixture of warmth and crudity. . . .

David Ansen
Newsweek, February 1, 1988