This Town is a reminder that any New Zealand feature film that isn’t dark, navel-gazing and occasionally violent is usually described as “a quirky comedy”.
If it’s not directed by Taika Waititi, unfortunately that’s also often code for a comedy without enough jokes in it. In the case of This Town, it means dollops of Kiwiana, and, shall we say, “challenging” subject matter.
Photo: Supplied
Sean’s putting himself up on the dating market, despite – you heard right – being arrested for killing his entire family.
Did he do it? Did he not do it? Either way, it’s an uncomfortable start to a film clearly intended to be a lovable romantic comedy.
Rima Te Wiata is one of the impressive cast roped in by star, writer, director and producer David White.
Te Wiata plays the unscrupulous journo who covered Sean’s case before, and sees a potential book now that he’s been released.
Online, Sean discovers Casey who’s immediately drawn to him despite his past. There seems no apparent reason for this, but clearly the writer and director David White sees a charm and innocence that eludes the rest of us.
It certainly eludes obsessed ex-cop Pam.
Pam, as played by Robyn Malcolm, is so obsessed she never seems to brush her hair. She was so sure Sean was guilty that when he was finally released for insufficient evidence, Pam quit the police force and went into business running a petting zoo.
However, in her spare time, she plots to send Sean back to the slammer.
This Town is all over the place tonally. Sometimes it’s wacky, childlike farce, particularly when Sean and Casey get together. Other times it’s a spoof on the media, as the cynical glossy magazines make up stories to fit their headlines.
And sometimes it’s a whodunit, as Pam’s investigation unearths unexpected facts.
But at its centre is the unsavory crime driving the story. No, it’s not based on any real-life family murder, we’re told, but it’s close enough to be unnecessarily creepy.
From the headlines of Sean’s family being killed to the fact that – even if he didn’t do it - somebody did, can’t help but leave a bad taste.
The stellar cast – including Danny Mulheron, Catherine Wilkin and Jonny Brugh – pop in and out, waiting to be given more to do. But mostly all that’s required of them is to provide a backdrop to the goofy lead duo.
Still, if you respond favourably to the term “Kiwiana”, and the sort of dead-pan humour mostly associated with fast-food TV commercials here, This Town may very well be for you.
It’s fun, as Bill Murray used to say, but it’s just not my sort of fun. See it for the cast, maybe, and for the fact that Kiwi comedies aren’t so common we can afford to throw them away.
