A warm-hearted cautionary tale for all those feeling the need to flex about their lives.

Millie (Ana Scotney) has the opportunity of a lifetime – a scholarship for an architectural internship in New York. Boarding the plane in Wellington, a panic attack causes her to miss the flight and she must do what she can to find the money for another ticket. In a moment of panic or pride, she begins to pretend on social media that she is on the plane and then in New York.

We know that her deception will catch up with her. She takes to spying on her friends, sneaking into their apartments to steal what she needs and we all know what they say about eavesdroppers. Her boyfriend Henry (Chris Alosio) is at first heartbroken but then seems to be the life of the party without her. Her best friend and architectural rival Carolyn (Jillian Nguyen) was a contender for the scholarship and it becomes apparent that one of them was copying ideas from the other.

Director Michelle Savill doesn’t shy away from the elements of tragedy in Millie’s choices and, despite the light-hearted humour, we slowly understand why that panic attack happened in the first place. The story is based in part on her own Filipino-Kiwi background and a similar experience of a missed flight. The growing complexity of Millie’s relationship with Henry and Carolyn feels relatable as we see one lie escalate into what must seem like a hopeless situation. Millie’s fraught relationship with her mother, played by the awesome Rachel House (“I’m relentless. I’m like the Terminator”), is where we see catharsis for Millie and the hope for some redemption.

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