In My Father

In My Father's Den

Chronologically fragmented into an intricate puzzle and a real slow burn, In My Father's Den requires some patience to begin with, as it unhurriedly sets itself up to be a family drama, a ‘man returns to quaint old home town' story. That isn't even the half of it. Much like Swimming Pool slowly lulled you into somewhat of a placid tale before sharply turning everything on its head, In My Father's Den also, well, um, does.

It evolves into a mystery, but don't bother trying to figure it out. There's no way you could guess the end. It's not the kind of film that parades around hints and clues, but rest assured all the little things shaking around make sense by the time the credits roll. Well…almost everything. There's a short scene where lead actor Matthew Macfadyen (Mr. Darcy in the latest rendition of Pride & Prejudice – who looks remarkably like Damon Albarn from Blur here) indulges in some Michael Hutchence-style auto-erotic asphyxiation, and later also does some crack. Maybe these were just badly chucked in “look at this character at his lowest ebb” moments, or possible red herrings, but they are issues that are never touched upon again.

Comparable in ways to the Australian film Lantana, but superior in my opinion, this great little kiwi flick shows that New Zealand is currently kicking our arse when it comes to world-class feature-length drama, although if mainstream newspaper reviews are to believed, perhaps Ray Lawrence's new film Jindabyne could reverse all that.