Peter Jackson known for low budget gory splat movies from New Zealand makes his first steps in serious film making in this murder drama based on a true incident.
The film opens with the aftermath of the slaying as two teenage girls emerge hysterical from the woods in Christchurch.
The film is about two schoolgirls, Mario Lanza, Orson Welles and living in early 1950s New Zealand which might had been decades behind the 1950s where rock n roll was to emerge in America.
Awkward, morose, gawky schoolgirl Pauline (Melanie Lynsky) meets a new arrival from England, Juliet (Kate Winslet) who is confident, clever and brings Pauline out of her shell. Both bond closely with their love of opera and begin to live in a fantasy land which also allows Jackson to keep his horror fans satisfied with special effects scenes.
The friendship between Juliet and Pauline soon becomes unhealthy as they feel superior and reality and fantasy collides. Pauline is resentful of her hokey, backwards family, especially her mother. Not helped by them not understanding her burgeoning sexuality, especially when a older boarder takes advantage of her and they blame the daughter.
Juliet is ignored by her self centred parents who on the verge of splitting up and Juliet might end up going to South Africa. As the girls are forcibly kept apart they hatch a violent plan which ends up in disaster and tragedy.
This is really a small scale drama from Peter Jackson, a world away from his recent overblown, enormous budget epics with even lengthier directors cuts.
Here the acting from Winslet and Lynsky does the talking. Jackson brings the New Zealand of the 1950s to live, a world that is very insular. However the film is an efficient drama, nicely acted, a gory ending but not too far away from a well made television drama with some good special effects.
The film opens with the aftermath of the slaying as two teenage girls emerge hysterical from the woods in Christchurch.
The film is about two schoolgirls, Mario Lanza, Orson Welles and living in early 1950s New Zealand which might had been decades behind the 1950s where rock n roll was to emerge in America.
Awkward, morose, gawky schoolgirl Pauline (Melanie Lynsky) meets a new arrival from England, Juliet (Kate Winslet) who is confident, clever and brings Pauline out of her shell. Both bond closely with their love of opera and begin to live in a fantasy land which also allows Jackson to keep his horror fans satisfied with special effects scenes.
The friendship between Juliet and Pauline soon becomes unhealthy as they feel superior and reality and fantasy collides. Pauline is resentful of her hokey, backwards family, especially her mother. Not helped by them not understanding her burgeoning sexuality, especially when a older boarder takes advantage of her and they blame the daughter.
Juliet is ignored by her self centred parents who on the verge of splitting up and Juliet might end up going to South Africa. As the girls are forcibly kept apart they hatch a violent plan which ends up in disaster and tragedy.
This is really a small scale drama from Peter Jackson, a world away from his recent overblown, enormous budget epics with even lengthier directors cuts.
Here the acting from Winslet and Lynsky does the talking. Jackson brings the New Zealand of the 1950s to live, a world that is very insular. However the film is an efficient drama, nicely acted, a gory ending but not too far away from a well made television drama with some good special effects.