Let’s break out the bubbly
THE Breaker Upperers is a bit raw, a little unpolished and fairly dry, but that’s pretty much how New Zealand comedies roll these days, so I guess that makes it right on target.
Written and directed by co-stars Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek, the film is executive-produced by Taika Waititi ( What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok), and while he didn’t write or direct this one, it certainly looks like the sort of film he would make and support.
Mel (Sami) and Jen (van Beek) are a couple of very cynical friends, both unlucky in love, who now run a business helping people to escape unwanted relationships.
Whether your partner is a bit scary, a bit clingy, a bit too persuasive, or you’re just a coward and don’t want to do the dirty work yourself, Mel and Jen will come up with a plan to create a quick and permanent break-up.
And mostly they have very little trouble justifying it all to themselves: their clients’ relationships are clearly doomed from the moment one of the partners hires them, so they’re just hastening the inevitable, right?
But then they encounter a couple of people who cause them to stop and reconsider: Anna (Celia Pacquola), whose life falls apart after the Breaker Upperers convince her that her boyfriend has vanished without a trace; and Jordan (James Rolleston), who needs help splitting up with his terrifying girlfriend Sepa (Ana Scotney) but has trouble even committing to that.
Mel and Jen are forced to confront the realities of what they are doing, as well as their personal reasons for doing it.
The premise is certainly a funny one and it is rife with opportunities for fun gags and tangents about various jobs and the hilarious ways they play out.
And while the film does make use of this, most of these gags seem to be played out in brief in the first act of the film in a handful of montages, which seems like such a shame. But really the concept only exists to set up the rest of the story, which runs a little deeper.
Mel and Jen have a curious friendship, both extremely close and a little strained, and it is in turns funny and fascinating to watch the reasons for this odd balance, and the ways they find to navigate it.
It is difficult to define the particular style of humour in this movie. Overall it is quite understated and underplayed, a tad dark and alternately subtle and outrageous. While this ensures a wide range of material to laugh at, it also makes the film seem a bit scattershot, not quite committing to one tone and one style of comedy. That isn’t a capital crime at all, but it can make it tricky to have your head in the right space for all the laughs.
But any unevenness is smoothed over by an undeniably talented comedic cast, spearheaded by Sami and van Beek, who are far from the most outrageous characters in the story, but who serve as excellent anchors for it. They are almost “straight guys” in their own comedy, with the bigger gags happening around them as they move through the plot, almost sketch-style.
But there are also some great nuggets of comedy in Mel and Jen’s interactions, their brisk dialogue together, and their frequently inept attempts to adapt to a professional situation that is spiralling rapidly out of control.
In some ways the leading ladies are almost outshone by the more outlandish performances of the supporting cast, who draw the biggest laughs. Pacquola is wonderful as the grieving Anna, who alternates between rage, weeping and joyous abandon so unpredictably it is a little bit scary.
Rolleston’s poor-dumb-boy performance as the clueless rugby player Jordan is also a hoot, with just the right mix of innocent stupidity and blatant pants man.
And Scotney really is quite intimidating as Sepa, the kind of girlfriend you expect would actually cut parts off you if she wanted to.
Of course, with your attention split between our two main protagonists and two parallel plots involving these other larger-than-life characters, I sometimes wasn’t quite sure who the movie was really about, and whose story was the central thread.
Really, the answer is all of them and none of them. You kinda just have to take the story moment by moment and let it do its thing.
This makes The Breaker Uppers a surprisingly easy comedy to watch. You don’t need to concentrate too hard on the plot, because it is pretty loose, and despite the internal ethical conflict of the premise, the story doesn’t waste any time on bothering to examine it in more depth.
It is a comedy that will get more chuckles than belly laughs, and that’s OK. It is a bit rude, a bit gentle, a bit silly and has a lot of low-budget charm.