UNLIKE A CHEF IN LOVE, this second foreign film screened in as many days is well plotted. And the premise of the title, that a sudden recent influx of immigrants into New Zealand is causing new kinds of stress on the social fabric, is brilliant. But Gregor Nicholas' directing is self-indulgent, the lead characters may be physically good looking but they're so spiritually ugly they're hard to watch and impossible to care about, and the sex scene dropped down in the middle of it without purpose makes one suspect that Nicholas likes his pornography live and raw. How many takes did it take to get it right, director? Even worse, his publicizing on Sony Pictures' website of his reaction to the Motion Picture Association of America's giving his film an NC-17 for such exploitive eroticism—when anyone who knows anything about the Association or American audiences would know before going in it couldn't possibly get anything else—is so sophomoric it's inane. (But I have to grant him the point that some of the arguments he got from the rating board were pretty inane, too)

Studio publicity compares this to Romeo and Juliet, but I don't recall that Juliet found a reason to get on her knees for Romeo five minutes after first meeting him. And if memory serves, there were some ancient issues between the Capulets and Montagues; this "Juliet's" father and brother hate her "Romeo" simply because he's not their kind. The father, Ivan, is upset by his daughters' lack of morals, but these apples haven't fallen far from the tree. The old man and his son are profane, violent loudmouths whose whole life is vice; when they're not carousing and gambling they make their living pushing dope. Ivan even curses the pope for saying the factions in Yugoslavia have to forgive and love one another.

"Romeo," the Maori Eddy, is the one lead character with some scruples. Instead of honoring Nina's offer when she gets on her knees, he gets down on his knees with her. He shows some spiritual initiative by bringing a tree representing his late father and the family's roots to the city and planting it. And although he's not up to resisting her seduction for long, he does the right thing when he realizes that she's not good for him, and again when he finds out she's pregnant. But his part, and his character, are downplayed. This is basically an ugly movie about ugly people, and even the New Zealand setting isn't presented nearly as beautifully as I've always heard it is. Nicholas seems to have something for high-tension electrical lines. Maybe his real point is that people who live too close to them live high-tension lives.

It's nowhere nearly as bad as Crash or Lost Highway, but I can't recommend this promising but basically flawed and misguided movie. If you want to know when NC-17 material can be effectively—not gratuitously—used, check out Sirens or Angels and Insects.