Savage Honeymoon

* * *

Cast: Nicholas Eadie, Perry Piercy, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Craig Hall, Sophia Hawthorne.

Director: Mark Beesley

Rating: R15, contains anti-social behaviour

Running time: 95 minutes

Opens: Thursday.

Review:Peter Calder


It's virtually impossible to dislike this, the newest local film, which concerns itself with the abortive second honeymoon of Mickey and Louise Savage, the king and queen of the speedway set.

Even chief censor Bill Hastings admitted that he liked it as he slammed an R18 rating on it for its characters' irresponsible use of beer, bourbon and LPG.

That rating has been softened on appeal, which will alarm those concerned about teenage drinking. But the alcohol-soaked Savages are all of legal drinking age and their attitude - that drinking is family fun - is unquestionably part of the culture the film depicts.

It's a film with such a self-confident swagger that it gets under our skin, largely because it has the courage of its own restrictions. Beesley, who also wrote, isn't going to get all deep and meaningful with us here and he doesn't want us to, either. He just wants to show us an affectionate portrait of a family muddling through a crisis and he sticks to his task with admirable singlemindedness.

The Savages are 20 years and two kids into a full-throttle marriage, but Louise thinks the mixture's running a little lean. Barely one step ahead of the police - who are interested in what's in the garage - she drags Mickey off to a favourite seaside campground for a second honeymoon and a romantic tune-up. But things fall apart when the rest of the family turns up - and Louise encounters an old flame.

Simple stuff, really, but Beesley and a mostly solid ensemble make it work by making everything a size or two larger than life. They don't just have booze in the boot, but bottles arranged by spirit in baize-trimmed compartments. And supporting characters like Ian Mune's campground proprietor, fussy and fascist on a pink golf cart, and Bruce Hopkins as a tow-truck driver with a past, offer plenty of incidental pleasures.

A 40-print release suggests the film's distributors have plenty of confidence in this one. With a bit of luck - and thanks to the censor's free publicity - that confidence should not be misplaced.