Desperate Remedies

Plot synopsis:
Set in "Hope, New Britannia", an overwrought nineteenth century New Zealand community seemingly on the edge of destruction, Dorothea Brooke (Ward-Lealand) is a shopkeeper and dress designer with a troubled past. She strives in vain to keep her feckless, opium-addicted sister Rose out of the clutches of her former lover, Fraser (Curtis). She is in a lesbian relationship with Anne Cooper (Chappell) but tempted by newcomer and former radical Lawrence Hayes (Smith). MP and war profiteer William Poyser (Hurst) wants her business and property to shore up his tottering career, through marriage. Dorothea, Anne and Lawrence become enmeshed in a tortured triangle, resolved when Lawrence agrees to marry Rose for convenience and to get her away from Fraser. Rose dies ravaged from her opium addiction, although Lawrence and Fraser have fought a battle on board a vessel as passengers and both are missing, presumed dead. Dorothea has been coerced into accepting Poyser in marriage.
Two years pass and Fraser returns, as does Lawrence. At an opera, a mise-en-abyme version of Fraser's sudden death is replayed- but the veiled female assailant turns out to be Anne, not Dorothea. Realising that Anne is her true love, Dorothea leaves Poyser to his fate, given the exposure of his financial mismanagement and gambling debts. Lawrence sees them off at the dock as they depart Hope, and Dorothea and Anne are last seen together at the vessel's helm, embracing and arm in arm.

Tags: comedy, gothic, murder, cult, intrigue, violence, melodrama

Review:
Perfect Camp.
This movie is intentionally campy and it does camp to perfection.
Everything detail in this film is done so well it constantly impressed me with how creative and resourceful people can be on a limited budget.
The film was chock full of amazingly creative sets, beautiful costumes and excellent actors.
The directing is top notch as well.
No detail is ignored by the director; down to the arching of a brow the twitching of a lip and a close-up of a furtive glance.
There is even a hilarious scene of one of the main characters literally dragging herself through the mud that made everyone in the movie theater laugh uncontrollably.
A great film..
One of my favorite films.
This film is brilliant!
What do I love about it?
Over-the-top melodrama (done well), a surreal mix of historial periods (and period dress/costume), great music, a sexy sexy hairy chest and a good twist in the plot at the end!
I hope it comes to DVD soon..
Self-consciously quirky.
This is a self-consciously quirky film which sets out to be visually arresting and vigorously melodramatic.
In the process, it comes close to unintentional humor in its bombastic style, primary color sets and incongruous moments of semi-nudity.
In the end, though, Desperate Remedies is a stunning and delightful film, almost entirely due to the convincing, sexy, utterly charming acting by the entire cast..
Glorious New Zealand Gothic.
I watched this again after "What we do in the shadows" reminded me of it.
It is aging very well, and for my money is a superior film to "What we do in the shadows".
The combination of Gothic, noir and high camp works superbly.
The sets and costumes (those dresses!) are wonderful, and the music matches the emotional tone perfectly.
The cast amounts to an A list of NZ actors.
Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Lisa Chappell make a superb pair of self-made ladies.
Jennifer Ward-Lealand is particularly magisterial and easily carries the weight of the film's central character.
The men are good too.
Kevin Smith died tragically young, so any movie featuring him is a treasure.
Michael Hurst is suitably sleazy as the corrupt MP and Cliff Curtis has a ball as the totally decadent Fraser.
A great kiwi cast in a great kiwi film..
Outrageous film from New Zealand..
Movie has migrane-inducingly bright colors, and outlandish costumes - such as a hoop-skirt with nothing under it.Gay sensibility throughout, in this somewhat peculiar, Victorianish setting..
Odd film.
A fairly surreal flick.
I've tried to describe it to friends, and the best thing I can come up with is "it's like watching someone else's dream."Definitely not intended for a general audience.
To the poster who commented on "migraine inducing color:" that's a perfect description..
A sort of lesbian Victorian bodice-ripper with a gay sensibility.
I saw this when it first came out and didn't know quite what to make of it.
14 years later, I still don't.
A sort of lesbian Victorian bodice-ripper* with a gay sensibility and two men of very different attractiveness (one brooding sultry hunk - the late and very much lamented Kevin Smith - one lowlife with a good body, Cliff Curtis), the film is operatic, over the top, and somewhat camp.
It takes place almost entirely indoors at night in sets of varying degrees of surreality, so that the New Zealand it is set is not one that any New Zealander will recognise, nor ever would have.
(There is a town of Hope in New Zealand, in Nelson province, but 5km from the sea.
The town seems to be based on Russell {Kororareka} but Russell never ran to grand opera.) The designers are very fond of the colour red, and everyone is very careless of the rubies at the centre of the plot - nobody even bothering to count them.
The music relies heavily on the overture to "La Forza del Destino" - which must be annoying to people who know the opera.
While these particular elements of plot, character and location have probably never been brought together before, there is nothing particularly novel about any of them.
Watch it mainly for curiosity about vintage NZ film.*No bodices were actually ripped in the making of this film.