Starring: Sam Neill, Julian Dennison,
Director: Taika Waititi
Delightful New Zealand film starring Sam Neill and written/directed by the mind that brought you What We Do In The Shadows, Taika Waititi, this film is about a foster kid who finds a home with an odd couple. But when his foster mother dies, rather than return to child services, he gets lost in the wilderness with his grumpy foster father (Neill) and are then pursued relentlessly by the authorities.
Ricky (Julian Dennison) is a lost soul just like Hec, his foster father, but in very different ways. Ricky has learnt to write haiku’s to manage difficult feelings, and Hec has the skills to live in the bush, but neither has the skills needed to live. They need each other, though they don’t entirely know it.
There is a lot of humour in this film, and New Zealand, as always, looks like God’s Own Country, but the film is not all laughs, and though it all gets a bit OTT in a good way, there’s always the relationship and pain of the two central characters at it’s heart.
See it? One of the better films this year, sweet and heartfelt. See it.
Wildfire Movies 