NOBODY would call the plays of Henrik Ibsen a bundle of laughs.

Writer/director Simon Stone’s directorial debut transfers Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck” (first performed in 1884) from Norway to Australia in our time. The relatively large list of characters gather in the home of patriarch Henry (Geoffrey Rush), who has decided to sell the family’s sawmill and marry his much younger housekeeper.

Henry’s son Christian (Paul Schneider) has come home after years of absence. Christian’s classmate friend Oliver (Ewen Leslie) has married teacher Charlotte (Miranda Otto), the mother of teenaged Hedvig (Odessa Young). Other family members include Henry’s brother Walter (Sam Neill).

The film’s title relates to Hedvig, whose fumbling cavortings with Adam (Wilson Moore) have confused her sexuality’s development. Hedvig is a troubled spirit at the best of times, as well she might be, in a family in which long-past secrets are about to emerge.

If you want a serious film exploration of issues in family turmoil, that one probably offers a modicum of value. Transferring it to Australia hasn’t seriously harmed its dramatic qualities. If you want a film about a teenaged daughter trying to deal with family and adolescence in a constricted family environment, “The Daughter” somehow doesn’t hit as hard as does “Looking for Grace” in which Odessa Young made her feature-film debut.

And while Ibsen’s plays have spawned 241 films since “The Pillars Of Society” in 1911, however admirable they are, they still work best when you’re in the mood for them.

At Dendy, Event Cinemas and Palace Electric

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