better by half...
Low budget New Zealand film released 1984. Starring Lisa Harrow fresh from her lead role in the BBC series 'Nancy'. Based on NZ born author Sue MacAuleys' semi autobiographical best seller of the same name.
Synopsis:- Liz a middle class pakeha(european) housewife suffering from depression has a nervous breakdown and is admitted to a mental hospital. There she meets up with Tug, a polynesian teenager undergoing drug rehab. For some unknown reason she is attracted to him. The feeling is mutual and following discharge from hospital the two move in together despite their different backgrounds and misgivings from both their friends. Almost immediately there is a clash as the two find it increasingly difficult to fit into each others worlds. It is not an auspicious beginning. Do they have enough love & respect to overcome these differences.
Brave effort from the producers and directors at a time when the NZ film industry was struggling to make itself felt in the international scene. Pity they could not have found a more interesting and original opus to do it. Lisa Harrow is her usual professional self doing some of her best work in the hospital scenes. In stark contrast was Pilisi's wooden & amateurish performance as Tug, a role in which a nation wide search was made and where everyone should have looked harder. The theme is not an original one and despite Temuera Morrison's cameo as a gang member there are few redeeming features. Shame really for the efforts of all involved they deserved success but they just missed the boat on this one...
Synopsis:- Liz a middle class pakeha(european) housewife suffering from depression has a nervous breakdown and is admitted to a mental hospital. There she meets up with Tug, a polynesian teenager undergoing drug rehab. For some unknown reason she is attracted to him. The feeling is mutual and following discharge from hospital the two move in together despite their different backgrounds and misgivings from both their friends. Almost immediately there is a clash as the two find it increasingly difficult to fit into each others worlds. It is not an auspicious beginning. Do they have enough love & respect to overcome these differences.
Brave effort from the producers and directors at a time when the NZ film industry was struggling to make itself felt in the international scene. Pity they could not have found a more interesting and original opus to do it. Lisa Harrow is her usual professional self doing some of her best work in the hospital scenes. In stark contrast was Pilisi's wooden & amateurish performance as Tug, a role in which a nation wide search was made and where everyone should have looked harder. The theme is not an original one and despite Temuera Morrison's cameo as a gang member there are few redeeming features. Shame really for the efforts of all involved they deserved success but they just missed the boat on this one...
- masonx
- Apr 21, 2000