The Breaker Upperers

This review may contain spoilers!

I get pretty embarrassed by how complacent New Zealand cinema has gotten with these dumb, often senseless comedy films that seem to define our film culture now. I would give The Breaker Upperers a 1/10.

This is a film in which the awkward nature of the comedy comes across fairly strong at times, not necessarily for an entire scene at any given point but certainly for some choice moments of dialogue.

James Rolleston, who played Jordan, is nice to see back in front of the camera; his blundering, young role is quite clueless and Rolleston finds a nice comedic direction with him. Ana Scotney, who played Sepa, is a fierce role with a tough exterior; I liked how Scotney balanced this rough exterior but was able to lend some degree of real emotional heartbreak to her character. Rima Te Wiata, who played Jen's Mother, really has a melodramatic performance that works wonders for her; this very vain, poised role is over the top but works well for the tone of this feature.

However, the best performance came from Madeleine Sami, who played Mel. Of the two leading protagonists Sami certainly provides a strong counterbalance to van Beek, often entering scenes with energy and delivering her role with a range of emotion. The strength of this role is a fairly innocent and naive approach to predicaments, she can be bumbling and has a unique comedic presence. The fact she depicts a sense of conflict, both externally and internally throughout shows a strength in her performance and out of all the cast this is one of the roles that actually feels like a character rather than a gag.

This film sets a poor standard almost immediately; setting the idea this is a comedy that will probably only appeal to middle-aged upper-class women who are on their fourth rerun of Absolutely Fabulous. However, the content doesn't even attempt to stay consistent with its original target audience, pitching to a minority crowd and a youthful audience as it develops. It's not really a film with a good sense of story, there's certainly no hint as to what it wants the audience to get out of the experience. At times you wonder if they were actually hoping to make you laugh. This is a film riddled with poor messages about romance, how to handle poor relationships and female friendship and you wonder if anyone bothered to read the script before greenlighting this beast. The cinematography is quite bland and simple, the direction obviously quite amateur or fairly new out. The editing keeps the pacing of this comedy slow and cumbersome; impressive considering the less than 90-minute runtime. The score isn't really there to speak of and the soundtrack is a mishmash that you won't remember walking out of the theatre.

Jackie van Beek, who played Jen, is a stiff, dull character to watch; as a central protagonist van Beek doesn't really work and weighs the film down. Celia Pacquola, who played Anna, has very little screen presence which her meek role is only partly to blame for; this character is introduced as a bit of a shtick but didn't fit well when she was reintroduced into the main narrative. Cohen Holloway, who played Joe, is really just inserted crudely in this film to be looked at; he certainly lacks chemistry with van Beek and Sami and really seems to coast in on his performance. Nic Sampson, who played Jen's Brother, is such a weird role that feels completely out of place; Sampson and van Beek feel so far removed from one another that their relationship as brother and sister really doesn't work.