The Day Shall Come: NZIFF Review

The Day Shall Come: NZIFF Review

Lacking the savagery of a lot of Chris Morris' earlier work, and based on "a hundred true stories", The Day Shall Come's tale of ineptitude reeks of some of the themes laid down in the brilliant Four Lions and which course through the veins of his work like Brass Eye and The Day Today.

In this latest, which heads to America, Morris tells the tale of Marchant Davis' Moses, who leads a church of six (basically, his family plus a couple of hangers-on) who are trying to build a farm in downtown.

Heading up the Star of Six, and constantly praising Black Santa, Moses is waiting for the day he and his followers are called to "overturn the accidental dominance of the white people."

But through an escalation of circumstances, Moses is thrust into the middle of an FBI office looking to make arrests of Jihadi to stand out, putting his idealism beliefs in the firing line of idiocy.

Essentially, The Day Shall Come sees Morris tackling themes he's already dealt with with his co-writers and perhaps more successfully so in Four Lions; the escalating one upmanship of those in power, the rise of idealism and the downtreading of the common man and their rights.

However what feels most disappointing about The Day Shall Come is how tame it appears to be when compared to the rest of his work.

Using his outrage more sharply, both he and co-writer Jesse Armstrong could have gone for savage barbs, instead of occasionally tame jabs. It's a major disappointment that feels under-developed and weak in parts, even if there are a couple of quotable moments which are up there with "Rubber Dinghy Rapids" from Four Lions.

The film's shot and edited in a workmanlike way, and Denis O'Hare and Anna Kendrick are simply okay in proceedings - it's with Marchant Davis the film rests. The debut actor's humanity shines through, and it's only the script that lets him down, leaving you feeling his arc's end is nowhere near as tragic or outrageous as it should have been.

Depressingly, The Day Shall Come will get lost in the pantheon of Morris' other work - it lacks the clarity and precision of the satirist that we needed for these times we live in, and consequently, it's underwhelming.