Results: NZFF Review

Results: NZFF Review

Those expecting a mumblecore classic from the director of Computer Chess Andrew Bujalski will be completely upended by this rom-com with a prestige cast.

Centring on two personal trainers in a gym Kat and Trevor, played by Marvel stalwart Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce, it's the story of Danny (a very laconic Kevin Corrigan) who ends up at the Power 4 Life gym when he ends up being dumped.

Divorced and minted, he's the very epitome of boredom - in fact, he hits up local chatrooms at night to offer $200 for someone to come round and hook up his big screen TV. But his desire to hook up is taken to the next level when he meets up with Kat, who offers him home improvement fitness training.

Uptight Kat is solely focussed on her work but Danny has other plans in the only way he knows how - in his shambling and amusing fashion, he starts to work away at her defences.

Meanwhile, Trevor is keen to expand his empire and the cash Danny is sitting on, proves to be just the opportunity he needs...

Results is not exactly anything approaching the film that Computer Chess was (which is perhaps a good thing as I was not one of those singing its praises) and is in fact as close to mainstream as you can possibly get with the romantic comedy genre.

While there are moments that feel looser and improvised in the script, giving you more the feel of the movement as a whole, it's fair to say that Results at times shambles and ambles toward its destination. That it gets there greatly on the charm of its leads (particularly the under-rated Corrigan) is not to damn it with faint praise, merely to highlight the fact that this is perhaps one of the lighter entrants into the festival.

But equally, it doesn't all quite gel together - Danny's story gets a little lost in the final mix and Trevor's meeting with a Russian bodybuilder (bizarrely played by Anthony Michael Hall) and his oppressed girl (Brooklyn Decker) are just two of the ingredients that feel slightly under-cooked.

Not only do physiques get worked out in Results, but so too do relationship issues (perhaps, unsurprisingly) ; it's all gently told and ironed out in a wry manner, and you won't be surprised to see everyone is messed up in their own ways. That it doesn't quite convince in parts and skirts the mainstream rather than the indie that Bujalski's been known for, gives it the cred that it needs to be part of the festival - and may provoke the debate and perhaps disappointment in equal measure in his followers that the festival thrives on long after the lights have gone up.