@ Filmhouse, Edinburgh Thu 16 Jun 2016; and
@ Cineworld, Edinburgh Sat 25 Jun 2016
(Part of Edinburgh International Film Festival)
Taika Waititi/ New Zealand/ 2016/ 101 mins
If any film at EIFF is going to poach the audience award from under the nose of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, it is going to have to be something nigh on miraculous, such was the warmth and delight generated by Taika Waititi’s latest. He already established himself as a festival favourite with vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows in 2014, which gained instant cult status, but this is surely destined for mainstream success.
Young delinquent Ricky is sent to live in the country with foster Aunt and Uncle Bella and Hec (Rima Te Wiata and Sam Neill). After a rocky start he soon becomes accustomed to his surroundings, an acclimatisation that is all to brief after the sudden death of Bella. On hearing he is to be taken back into care he runs off into the wilderness. Hec finds him, but in their absence it’s been assumed that Hec’s gone mad with grief and has kidnapped Ricky. A manhunt ensues, with accompanying media scrum.
It’s a simple story, but one told with infinite care, poignancy and humour. It scales the heights of almost Spielbergian wonder, magic and adventure, but with an offbeat style all its own. It is fantastic to see Sam Neill back leading a film, and he’s never been better than as the taciturn woodsman, Hec. Julian Dennison is a natural as Ricky, his comic timing masterful as the city boy out of his depth and the pair are a joy every second they are on screen together. Hec and Ricky are two people who have come adrift from the world and are forced to clutch at the only thing that tethers them to the rest of existence. Their initial defiance at the authorities becomes a real need not to have all they have left torn from them, and Neill and Dennison play this perfectly.
The film feels like a modern fable; existing in a recognisable, but slightly heightened reality, which means obvious absurdity such as the increasingly over-the-top methods employed by the police and social services to track the pair down; and Waititi’s cameo as a lunatic vicar officiating Bella’s funeral (that brings to mind Peter Cook’s ‘Mawwiage‘ role in The Princess Bride), never appear so silly that they’re detracting from the story.
If we could quibble, Rima Te Wiata is so wonderful as Bella, and her character fashioned with such love and vividness that we miss her for the rest of the movie (please seek out a neat little comedy horror called Housebound in which she plays a similar role). Her loss lingers throughout, but was obviously necessary as the catalyst for the story.
The British public should cross all available digits for as wide a cinema release as possible when it plays nationwide, as seeing Hunt for the Wilderpeople in a packed screen with a hugely appreciative audience was an experience unlikely to be better at EIFF ’16.
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