Jinx Sister

Directed by Athina Tsoulis
Starring Sara Wiseman, Rachel Nash, Jarod Rawiri, William Wallace
Rated: R13
Running time: 100 mins

"Jinx Sister" is the nickname thirty-something Laura believes she has earned after a string of family tragedies. Returning to New Zealand after 10 years living in Los Angeles, Laura (Sara Wiseman) is about ready to reconnect with her family – what's left of it – and maybe put an end to her willfully self-destructive ways. Back in Auckland, Laura books herself into a cheap motel, and begins a slow and wary orbit of her old life – here represented by her big sister; the earth motherish Maire, her husband, and their daughters.

It sounds like a promising and identifiably Kiwi story – and there is a lot about Jinx Sister to like. But too many false notes, outrageously contrived plot points, and some woefully over-explicatory dialogue pretty much kill the film stone dead before it's far out of the starting blocks. Would Laura really have become so Americanised in 10 years that she now refers to her Kiwi mum as "Mom"? Does every meaningful conversation have to wait till we've driven to a windswept coastline? And given the slender evidence presented, would Laura really have believed she was cursed?

But there is still some good stuff to Jinx Sister. The leads – especially Wiseman – are uniformly strong and committed , all of them managing to find some unlikely moments of truth in the white spaces on the page between Tsoulis's dialogue. And Rewa Harre's camerawork, as always, is terrific. I wanted to like this film more than I did, and I think its very possible that a lot of people will enjoy it. I actually hope that is the case.
 

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