Predicament was a thoroughly enjoyable film. Set in 1930's small town New Zealand and adapted from a Ronald Hugh Morrison novel of the same name, Predicament is a hard film to categorize as it touches on many genres. The overall theme of the film is a crime drama, with a fantastic comedy element woven throughout, which kept the plot intriguing and the characters quirky. What makes the casting and story really interesting is that the main character Cedric (film newcomer Hayden Frost), even when partnered with two fantastic comedy heavyweights Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement, and Heath (Chopper) Franklin, never gets lost in the cast or upstaged as the main character. Both Spook (Jemaine) and Mervyn (Heath) provide lots of character personality, features & flaws that Cedric's character doesn't have, which creates an unlikely trio of mischief that never lets up from the opening to the closing credits. All the supporting actors are great too, including kiwi icon Tim Finn, who plays a great character that adds to poor Cedric's woes. I love fun films and that is exactly what Predicament delivers - by the spade full. Amazing sets, cars & costumes all come to life in the rich vivid colourful directing by Jason Stutter.
My whole family watched predicament when it opened the NZ film festival, and we all loved the film, including my "tweenage" kids who would have been some of the youngest in the audience, yet they too said it was now one of their favourite films. Predicament is a gem of a movie in that it delivered everything I could want from a film - great story, great laughs, great suspense and set to a fantastic musical score, with a catchy new Tim Finn song "Predicament" that I have been singing in my head ever since.
