Cannabis doco wastes its premise
Breaking Habits (M, 87 mins) Directed by Robert Ryan Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★
If you have joined any streaming platform, or are still a card-carrying member of a surviving video shop (in which case, you are a superior human being to most), then you have at your fingertips such a plethora of documentaries it would take you weeks of non-stop viewing just to make a dent in the pile.
And of all the subjects that a new generation of documentary makers are turning to, ‘‘true crime’’ productions seem to be the easiest sell when it comes to freeing up the potential investors’ pocket books.
The whole genre is problematic as hell. For every genuinely instructive and investigative piece of work (surely Errol Morris’ 1988
The Thin Blue Line is still the goldstandard and patient-zero in the current epidemic) there are a dozen just cashing in on the public’s taste for true-crime.
Truth and actual crime are mostly optional. Welcome to
Breaking Habits. A mildly interesting film that I am genuinely surprised has secured a big-screen release here in Godzone.
Breaking Habits outlines the story of Christine Meeusen. A hardworking, bread-winner mother-ofthree, Meeusen was married to a seemingly reliable man who was happy to be the stay-at-home dad to her corporate high-flyer.
Hubby routinely turned out to be no such thing.
Broke, alone and unemployed, Christine turned to California’s newly relaxed medicinal marijuana laws to build herself a new life.
She adopted a habit and styled herself Sister Kate, despite never having been a nun. As her cannabis-based business grew, she made her female workforce do the same.
The law, local criminals and some persistent personal history all threaten to derail Kate, but she perseveres.
All of which sounds like the makings of a better-than-average – or at least, average – night in with Netflix.
But the truth is, Breaking Habits is a bit of a mess. There are far too many unanswered questions, gaps in the narrative and obvious misdirection away from the story’s kernel of truth.
Expecting to be at least entertained, I ended the film bored and irritated. This potentially engrossing and timely story is, like so many of its participants, mostly wasted.