ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies.

THE PAST is a country that should only be visited with caution. War photographer Paul Prior discovers that in the course of ‘In My Father’s Den’, a solemn, broodingly atmospheric drama that is one of the most striking films to emerge from New Zealand in recent years.
  
Best known for his role in ‘Spooks’, and soon to play Mr Darcy in a new version of ‘Pride And Prejudice’, Matthew MacFayden stars as Prior. A globe-trotting photojournalist, he returns home for his father’s funeral.
  
Awkward and uncomfortable, he gives the impression that he would rather be anywhere else. Somehow, he decides to stay and accepts a temporary teaching job at his old school. There, he befriends Celia (Emily Barclay), and senses a kindred spirit in someone who is equally keen to leave this oppressive backwater.

The fact that he might just be Celia’s father is one of the questions that adds layers of intrigue and mystery to the story. However, although ‘In My Father’s Den’ is never without visual interest and dramatic potential, it does proceed at the kind of funereal pace that leaves you restless and frustrated.
  
The diffident MacFayden seem a little lightweight for a role that demands a more ravaged, world-weary performance, but Emily Barclay is an exceptional new talent as the sensitive adolescent longing to make something of her life. The climactic plunge into unconvincing melodrama further undermines a film that is never as focused or as penetrating as it might have been.
  
IN MY FATHER’S DEN
General release, selected cinemas
Director: Brad McGann
Stars: Matthew MacFayden, Miranda Otto, Emily Barclay, Colin Moy, Jodie Rimmer
Screenwriter: Brad McGann based on the book by Maurice Gee
Certificate: 15
Running time: 126 mins
Country: New Zealand
Year: 2004
 

© Allan Hunter, 2005