Following on the heels of Taika Waititi's firecracker movie Jojo Rabbit comes the less frenetic Kiwi film Bellbird, and it shares most of its time between a rural scrap-yard and a family farm.
Bellbird opens on the farm run by husband and wife Ross and Beth. She's chatty and cheerful. He's monosyllabic but he loves her dearly.
Photo: Transmission Films
They have a son called Bruce who's even more silent than his dad, and works as an odd-job man at the junk-shop next to the tip.
One day Beth dies, and father and son have to fill the gigantic hole left in their lives by her passing.
Bruce is encouraged by his boss Connie, played by Rachel House, who's not only the best thing in this film, but the best thing in just about every movie she's ever been in. Since these include Whale Rider, Boy, White Lies and the Disney film Moana this is no minor claim.
Bruce and Ross are played by two more well-known faces, Cohen Holloway and Marshall Napier. And there are moments when you fear that Bellbird may slip into the gloom of the dreaded Cinema of Unease.
Fortunately writer-director Hamish Bennett is smarter than that.
The strength of Bellbird is its dry, rural sense of humour.
As Ross and Bruce attempt to make up for the lack of Beth - who was clearly the business brains of the outfit as well as the light and shade - there's sterling work on the outskirts from Rachel House and Stephen Tamarapa as the vet.
Bellbird is the first New Zealand film, I gather, to go out with subtitles in te reo Māori , reflecting the fact that just about all the supporting roles are played by Māori actors.
Here's the funny thing about most New Zealand films with a strong Māori presence. They tend to be lighter on their feet than their all- Pākehā cousins.
Less brooding, more jokes, often - and that's certainly the case with Bellbird.
OK, it won't rival M Night Shyamalan for plot twists, and unexpected endings. It's a sweet, gentle film, graced by some pretty good performances, and one really good one.
Give Rachel House her own Netflix cop-show is my suggestion. If there were such a thing as a Scottish-Maori Olivia Colman, Rachel's it.
