Workmates: Movie Review

Cast: Sophie Henderson, Matt Whelan, Arlo Green, Zoe Robins, Chris Parker
Director: Curtis Vowell

Fantail's husband and wife director once again team up - this time for a film about a life in the arts.

A deeply engaging Henderson plays Lucy, a perennially stuck mess of a human who's resorted to living at the theatre she manages and whose laissez-faire approach to life and the problems it often poses is covered mostly by her long-suffering friend and cohort Tom (Whelan).

When Lucy one day injures herself at work, the theatre is condemned unless it can secure a new lifeline of funding. As if that's not seismic enough for Lucy, Tom is threatening to leave their beloved theatre behind, spurred on by a need to care for his newly pregnant girlfriend...

There's a gentle easiness to Workmates that proves to be disarmingly engaging as this sweet and overly cute film plays out. Buoyed by the push and pull dynamic between Tom and Lucy, there's a real sense of deep and grounded history between the pair, made deftly alive by easy chemistry between the two of them.

Yet underneath the charmingly sweet exterior, there's a a couple of barbed moments aimed squarely at New Zealand's arts. From a clarion call to save theatres via a tender moment looking at the dilapidated ruins of Auckland's St James Theatre to a distressingly all-too-familiar appearance of predators within the community, Henderson has clearly channelled her time in the arts to finesse a message that's obvious to those looking in.

But rather than become obsessed with this in the film, Workmates works best when it focuses on Tom and Lucy, with her wilfully inept and openly negligent character opining at one point, "I just wanna hang out with you like this forever" to Tom, whose uptight attitude is the corrective course that Lucy just needs more than anything.

There's also a great deal of tenderness here, with many able to recognise the feeling that one job - or calling - in life can bring. As one character worries, "What if there isn't any magic anywhere else?" there's a sense that growing up forces an ennui and unhappiness on those suffering from arrested development.

There may be a couple of misfires within Workmates - from Zoe Robins' one-note harridan nag of a girlfriend to an over-indulgent late night party - but for the large part, this is a film that has its heart on its sleeve and is largely all the better for it.

Held together by winning performances from Henderson and Whelan, this may be the sweetly surprising antidote to any romcom ennui you may feel has been foisted upon you.

Workmates is playing as part of the NZIFF before a wider release.