| IF
MAGAZINE
By Ruth Hessey. Inside Film 13. October 2003
A
PERVERSE FAIRYTALE
Who knows why we have to wait so long for Rachael
Blake to turn up on screen. Suffer no more, as Blake
(Wildside, Lantana) is indeed the star, engine and
salt of PERFECT
STRANGERS, a new film not from Australia
incidentally, but from our somewhat more perceptive,
if risk-happy, filmmaking neighbours in New Zealand.
Gaylene Preston has carved out an impressive career
as a documentary filmmaker in NZ. WAR
STORIES Our Mothers Never Told Us (1995)
was actually a box office hit there. Twenty years
after the first inkling of PERFECT
STRANGERS knocked on her head, she has brought
the film to fruition through a dazzling collaboration
with New Zealand’s legendary best –
from Sam Neill playing opposite Blake to Alun Bollinger,
the cinematographer whose name pops up in the camera
department credits of some of the most significant
NZ films ever made (including Vincent Ward’s
Vigil, Jane Campion’s The Piano and Peter
Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures and Rings Trilogy.
Preston has written a perverse fairytale played
out as a journey to the heart of darkness. Blake’s
Melanie oozes sexual confidence and challenge as
she prowls the bars of a small New Zealand town.
Is she still looking for Mr Right, or does her glamour
hide the soul of a woman dying inside?
Preston hurls this quite recognisable 21st Century
every woman into every woman’s worst nightmare.
Is the handsome man (Neill) she picks up one fateful
night her prince come at last, or has her game of
romantic roulette played its last shot?
Most of the action takes place on a deserted island
as wild and lush as any Garden of Eden, with memorable
sequences at sea and during tremendous storms. Set
against this tempestuous natural environment Preston
drives her heroine through the emotional equivalent
of extreme sports. Its not just a case of physical
survival a la Dead Calm. Melanie’s existential
journey takes her to the brink of madness. And where
does she go from there?
Some will find the ending of PERFECT
STRANGERS presents one twist too many in
the heroine’s psychological evolution. But
in another way, Preston’s decision to include
‘a happy ever after.’ Is the final challenge
of a riveting thriller, and signals another chapter
lurking in the wings.
|
