The Turning

Raelene is the wife of Max and a mother of young daughters. She and her family live in the White Point caravan park where Max grew up. A woman from a working-class background, Raelene considers Max to be her “kind of bloke” and is very sexually attracted to him, but she is dismayed by their loveless marriage and his increasingly abusive behavior. Despite Max’s violence, she refuses to leave him. Raelene develops a close friendship with Sherry and her husband Dan. Through them she attempts to find religion, despite her initial suspicion, as she sees it as the secret to their happiness, a happiness that eludes her relationship with Max. Unfortunately, Raelene struggles to embrace spirituality, finding that genuine belief escapes her, though she comes close during epiphanic moments walking alone on the beach observing the night sky. While Raelene is a caring mother and loyal wife, Max mistakes her friendship with Sherry as signs of an affair and brutally attacks her. Even so, Raelene still refuses to leave him and even attempts to protect him from being fired when his boss learns what he has done. Raelene finally finds the religious feeling she has been seeking when she has something akin to an out-of-body experience during a horrific marital rape at the hands of Max.