The latest NZ flick - patchy at best

We are interested in movies in our family. My husband and I enter the 48 hours (six years now and counting), my children help us in other productions, we even have a presence on YouTube (see a previous post on The Vintner's Duck), so we try to see New Zealand movies as they come out (if they seem at all interesting and/or suitable for young teenage girls). So we went off last weekend to see Predicament - the latest New Zealand flick, completing the filming of every work of fiction by iconic New Zealand writer Ronald Hugh Morrieson. I have not read Morrieson, nor seen any other movie made of his work, but Predicament did not change my impression - a black comedy, obsessed with the gothic and scandalous and black, black, black.

But the story was fun. Obviously the concoction of some sort of genius. Morrieson does not fit in the usual New Zealand literary tradition. This is not serious stuff - it's fun and thrills and blood and guts and a little bit naughty. Small town gothic. I doubt Morrieson was terribly worried about the Great New Zealand Novel (which is really refreshing).

The film looks beautiful but is so patchy. Also, it was useful to understand that Morrieson had not completed the story upon his death, for the ending is quick and perfunctory and leaves a lot unexplained. Jemaine Clement, who receives star billing, steals the show. He plays a character called Spook, whose main characteristic is appearing as if from nowhere - and it is impossible to imagine anyone else doing this so well. Unfortunately he departs the scene well before the end and takes most interest with him. None of the characters are in the least bit sympathetic, except the Gran, who is a very minor character and this is a problem in watching the movie. So after Jemaine departs it gets a bit tedious. Other reviewers have mentioned that the actor playing Toebeck overplays most of the time so that his secret sinister side is actually not so secret. Although the pivotal scene where we become aware of his possible involvement in his father's death is effective.

The main character, a callow youth who is terminally embarassed by his father, is extremely unsympathetic and this is a real weakness, possibly inherited from Morrieson - and put this together with the hustled up ending (not written by Morrieson) and you're left with an unsatisfactory cinema experience.