This movie, filmed and produced in New Zealand,
is a funny, offbeat yet poignant story about city dwelling, foster boy Ricky Baker
and the rural couple who care for him, Bella and Hec (Sam Neill).
Ricky has reached the end of the line of
foster carers, and is known by authorities as a “bad egg”. Bella, with her patient, loving, no-nonsense
care slowly develops a loving relationship with Ricky, while Hec watches from the
sideline. Tragedy strikes, leaving Hec
and Ricky to fend for themselves.
Ricky decides he’s not going back to the
foster care system and runs away. Hec
finds him but a broken ankle forces them to camp in the bush for six weeks. Upon their return, they realise they are the object
of a major manhunt, with Hec assumed to have kidnapped Ricky.
We watched it as a family, and reflected that Miss 9.5 was probably too young for it, she didn’t grasp the story, didn’t
really get the humour and found some of the subject matter a bit
confronting. Miss (almost) 12 enjoyed
it and Mr (almost) 14, like us, thought some parts were hysterical, and they also grasped the
depth of what was happening.
There was a fair bit of low-level language
(bastard, sh*t, etc), several references to the (mistaken) assumption that Hec has
molested Ricky, and some violent animal death scenes (hunting wild pig). Unfortunately,
the only reflection on Christianity was a very incompetent minister at a
funeral. The characterisation of the foster
care worker is very funny, although not particularly complementary to those who
work in the system. So, discretion is clearly
needed with this one and which children you would show it to.
For families with young teens this could be
a good, quirky choice about real people with real issues, from a mostly light-hearted
point of view.
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