Troubled Bubble: The Aspirational Milieu of Rachel Ward's 'Palm Beach'

Golden sun, crystal-blue water, endless food and drink, conversation, and the company of old friends – this is the world we see in Palm Beach, and it is indeed an idyllic one. Yet it's not long before cracks in the fantasy begin to manifest themselves, taking form not just as relationship fault lines between characters but also as essential deficiencies in the film's thematic fabric, writes Travis Johnson.

Additional keywords:
privilege, middle class, Baby Boomer, wealth, materialism, Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Richard E Grant.