Jinx Sister

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

Microbudget Kiwi family drama is too slow but the two main performances are great.

Small and imperfectly formed, this microbudget New Zealand drama relies on a few too many skeletons falling out of a single family closet but it is graced with some moments that pack a real emotional punch.

Wiseman plays Laura Martin, who returns to Auckland after 10 years in LA where her life has turned to custard. She tracks down her elder sister Mairie (Nash), happily if impecuniously married and raising kids in Manurewa.

Gradually we come to realise that each sister is coping (or rather failing to cope) with a shared unhappy past that they must face up to together.

It's a good idea but the script, by Tsoulis herself, is spoiled by several non sequiturs, both emotional and dramatic, and a pace most charitably described as languid.

Wiseman surmounts the winsome girl-next-door image of her character in

Mercy Peak

and persuasively creates a woman whose turbulent emotional life is exacerbated by her pig-headedness. The costuming, which requires her to spend most of the film half-naked or in a camisole, seems slightly gratuitous but she confirms her stature as an actress. She's matched, if not outdone, by Nash, whose Mairie is actually a better-written character and has most of the best lines: the atmosphere in a well-worked scene when she makes a discovery about her husband is thick enough to cut with a knife.

Some may find the premise too slight to sustain a feature - the film is at least 10 minutes too long and many scenes have characters staring out the window long after the shot has served its dramatic function. But it's a creditable local effort.

Peter Calder

Cast:

Sara Wiseman, Rachel Nash, Jarod Rawiri, Will Wallace, Jenni Heka, Rawiri Paratene

Director:

Athina Tsoulis

Running time:

101 mins

Rating:

R13 (sex scenes, offensive language)

Screening:

Academy, Rialto