I was intrigued to see Alice Englert’s first feature, particularly as it’s stars Jennifer Connelly and Ben Whishaw and, hopefully, the New Zealand people and landscape.

The story is an interesting premise. Daughter Dylan (Englert) is a stunt person on a fantasy film in Otago New Zealand. She has a fractious relationship with her mother, Lucy (Connolly), who is off to a spiritual retreat, led by guru Elon Bello (Wishaw). Both reflect on their bad behaviour and eventually have to confront their relationship.

It’s a film that should work. There are mildly satirical overtones, particularly with the retreat where we recognise it as a vacuous and self-serving indulgence by privileged people. Wishaw flails around in a two-dimensional part that goes nowhere, allowing the character of model and DJ Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova) to be the antagonist to Lucy’s passive aggressive and, eventually, aggressive aggressive belligerence.

The scenes of Dylan on her film set – a parody of the Lord of the Rings ilk of films, perhaps – feel more interesting, but they seem to be less important than Lucy’s exploits. I couldn’t tell you which country the spiritual retreat is supposed to be set in. I thought it was in the US but it feels very Kiwi. There’s a nice spikiness to Dylan and Lucy’s relationship and I’m sure many will recognise that frustrated, impotent feel of a child with a pretty awful parent.

Ultimately, though, it doesn’t really hang together and feels like lots of good ideas and not quite enough experience to make it a compelling whole. Finding out afterwards of Englert‘s pedigree (her mum is Jane Campion) it feels like a film by someone who hasn’t yet refined their craft.

Director: Alice Englert
Origin: New Zealand (2023)
Language: English, French
Genre: Comedy, Drama

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