Direction: Gaysorn Thavat
Country: New Zealand
Australian actress Essie Davis (The Babadook, 2014) stars in The Justice of Bunny King as the title character, a true fighter and single mother of two who is bound to battle the social services to be near her children - Shannon, four; and Reuben, 14 - who are in foster care because she's homeless.
She stays temporarily with her sister Grace (Toni Potter) and her boyfriend, Bevan (Errol Shand), counting every penny collected from washing windscreens in Auckland. With the Child Protection Services restricting all her moves toward the children, she can only dream of getting an apartment and reuniting with her family. But a terrible finding involving her niece Tonyah (Thomasin McKenzie) pushes that wish farther away.
This New Zealander drama is occasionally moving but never surprising. Benefitting from its authentic execution, even if engaging sporadically in some unnecessary clichéd proceedings (why does every drama include a feel-good scene with music inside a car?), this is a vividly etched depiction of how a loving mother and her children can grow apart.
In her feature debut, Gaysorn Thavat knits the drama with serious and sobering observation, whereas the script by Sophie Henderson had some margin to improve. Still, the final sequence - formulated with good and bad choices - may leave you with a lump in your throat, even though you clearly see the ending coming. Davis delivers on the story's promise with a convincing portrayal. There’s no doubt she deeply cares about the character she plays, compelling us to feel the same.
