Jeff Truman

Australian director Julie Money’s auspicious debut thriller from IFC Films recounts a tale of middle-class whites, revenge, and family disillusionment. The film opens with the theft of a black dress off the clothesline of wife and homemaker Kate (Linda Cropper) by a band of suburban thugs led by Nick (Scott Major) and sexpot Rachel (Anna Lise Phillips). When Kate spies her dress on Rachel at the local swimming pool, she decides to take it back, no matter the consequences. The hoodlums retaliate by breaking into Kate's house and sexually torturing her son Matt (Wade Osborne); this almost pushes Kate over the edge. Her all-consuming passion for revenge, which threatens her marriage and relationship with her son, eventually erupts into a horrifyingly violent climax. Envy earned Phillips an AFI Award nomination and was an official selection at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival.

When the ghost of a murdered boy appears to the woman who witnessed his death, the two set out to expose the killer—her own father.