Gary Of The Pacific

This review may contain spoilers!

So I won't be surprised to see this in amongst my bottom five of this year. I would give Gary Of The Pacific a 1/10.

Probably one of the only things that really grabbed my attention while I watched this film was the interesting creative choice to have Gary's father revisit him as a sort of ghost/conscience after his death; it was a unique ideas and one of the only things that really grabbed me about this feature.

Megan Stevenson, who played Chloe, really took this vain self-centred character and stole the show with her; I felt that Stevenson really knew how to play up her role to bring a bit of energy to scenes that would have otherwise felt dead on arrival. Leigh Hart, who played the Pilot, had a scene near the end of the film which actually had me grinning; Hart's loud blatant line delivery and quite abrasive role completely steal the show.

However the best performance came from David Fane, who played Dad. Fane is a very charismatic persona in this film, he comes across as very friendly and kind-hearted. It's quite discomforting as an audience member to watch Fane's role grow so disappointed in his son yet remaining hopeful; especially when you discover how close they are to one another. Fane really comes into his own when he comes back as a 'ghost', the filter really comes off and he starts delivering some really brilliant one-liners. I also liked this aspect because he became a sort of reasoning voice for Gary, creating one of the moral points of the entire film.

For a comedy this is about as low as it can get no two ways about it. Apart from a few select scenes I don't think I got much in the way of comedy out of this entire film, I certainly didn't laugh once during it. The type of comedy in this seems to come from spontaneous one-liners or prop humour, you feel so distanced from everything the film is trying to project on to you that it becomes a dull mess really early on. The whole film focuses upon Gary who is neither likable nor is he really all that redeemed by the end of the feature. This is a really selfish guy who sees one seminar about your life being successful by getting rich quick and suddenly his entire role revolves around this persona. Throughout the film he is either walking away from his dying father, trying to steal his dead Mum's wedding ring from his sister or spending the money to evacuate his sinking island home on a fancy wedding with a girl who doesn't even love him. It's a film that comes across as self-indulgent and even when Gary reluctantly sells his New Zealand home at the end of the feature, to buy his people the appropriately named 'Rubbish Island' as a new home, you can't really forgive him his shortcomings. The cinematography throughout looks like it's been done by a film amateur, the entire style looks downright sloppy. The editing moves at a crawl, you just wish cuts came quicker so that this movie could be put out of it's misery. The score for the film lacks energy, when the music kicks in you feel lethargic and sleepy which certainly compliments the tone of the movie even if it's not really the intended effect.

Josh Thomson, who played Gary, has to be one of the worst feature film leads I've ever seen; his entire way of speaking and the personality he constructs make you hate him and he clearly lacks the talent to forge any sort of path of redemption for him. Matt Whelan, who played Nelson, is just one of those role that makes no sense and is a bit cringeworthy to watch; Whelan takes this role down every comedic path he's clearly capable of and it's an absolute trainwreck. Hamish Parkinson, who played the MC, is quite a dull off-key presence in an already very rigid scene; Parkinson tries to get a bit unique in his comedic performance but it just comes off as weird and even a little creepy. Dominic Ona-Ariki, who played Kitiona, was possibly the worst comedic actor in the whole film; the way he's cast as this dumb goofball persona is a bit cheap and hard to watch. Taofi Mose-Tuiloma, who played Lani, is this really stony character who has no emotional range at all; her very rigid acting feels out of place in a comedy film. Rangimoana Taylor and Sanjay Patel, who played Prime Minister and Aide respectively, lacked screen presence in most of their scenes; the film should have just played these parts as background characters rather than get Patel to deliver some truly awful jokes. Toby Sharpe, who played Randall, was such a stiff performance and set the tone for the entire Awards/auction scene; Sharpe really performed quite a stereotypical character that left no mark on this film whatsoever.