The Rehearsal

This review may contain spoilers!

If Hunt For The Wilderpeople and Mahana is the best New Zealand had to offer this year then this film must be the worst. I would give The Rehearsal a 2/10.

There are elements of the film that focus upon Stanley's study into becoming a good actor, this aspect of the plot is probably the film's biggest and most unique strength. The cinematography also looks really good, every shot manages to capture details in such vivid quality and there's some interesting experimenting with framing.

Miranda Harcourt, who played Livia, stole the show out from under Fox as a mentor figure; Harcourt brought the gravitas and compassion that you'd normally associate with a teacher role.

However the best performance came from Kieran Charnock, who played William. Charnock is a fresh example of some good young talent within New Zealand, he brought a ton of energy and presence to his role. I found the role of William to be a lot of fun, he was absolutely able to create a believable comedic performance. I also enjoyed how Charnock really committed to aspects of his character, the way he'd come up with absurd suggestions or perform long monologues that captured the audiences attention.

This film pushed for a very abstract feel to the film which ultimately didn't really work out very well. The Rehearsal didn't seem to really know what it was about; is this a coming of age story? A story about performance versus reality? Is it about an underage sex scandal? There was a constant stream of confusing moments including but limited to: a variety of characters who may have been gay or bi-sexual but without any follow through, a character killed in a way that didn't serve the film, the creepy relationship between Stanley and Hannah and of course the ending of the film. This overloaded directionless film was tough to sit through, that's the nicest way I can describe the pacing problems. The editing felt sloppy, often cuts seemed to just happen very abruptly and there was no smooth flow at all. The soundtrack was horrid; the score was more a collection of noise and poor sound mixing rather than anything that actually resembled music.

James Rolleston, who played Stanley, continues his run as a hit and miss performer; Rolleston's inability to craft a character who is very likeable or even understandable costs this film big time. Kerry Fox, who played Hannah, feels more sexual predator than mentor in this film; Fox struggles to connect with the cast itself in this film and her role at times is over the top. Ella Edward, who played Isolde, has no chemistry at all with Rolleston; this is one of the worst romance subplots that you'll see this year. Alice Englert, who played Thomasin, is one of the most forgettable roles in the supporting cast; in fact Englert has no real screen presence until about halfway through the film. Michelle Ng, who played Frankie, could have been an interesting role if her character had been given any depth at all; as it was she was merely used to give William's death some impact. Rachel Roberts, who played Victoria, fails to bring any emotion to her performance; she's more plot device than character in this particular film. Erroll Shand, who played George Saladin, was almost unnecessary in regards to the amount of screen time this role was given; Shand didn't give his role any type of edge that would have made him stand out in this film. Marlon Williams, who played Theo, seemed to only really be in this film for his ability to sing; Williams' character didn't have very clear relationships with any of the other characters in the cast which made him forgettable most of the time. Tandi Wright, who played Naomi Lancaster, presented a rather two-dimensional upper class mother figure; suffice it to say Wright's performance was over the top and a bit high strung.