Starring: Ana Scotney, Jillian Nguyen, Chris Alosio, Sam Cotton, Rachel House
Distributor: Rialto
Runtime: 100 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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A young architecture student sets out for New York, has a panic attack, stays in Wellington pretending to be in the US, one lie leading to another, one crisis leading to another.
As it emerges, the important word in the title is, in fact, lies. The scenario begins with a huge lie which has enormous consequences, whopper consequences – and more and more lies.
The Millie of the title, an architecture student in Wellington, spends most of the action of the film lying low in Wellington when she should be in New York City. But, in terms of the audience spending 100 minutes with her, she is centre screen, in every sequence, not lying low at all with the audience.
Millie is a young 20-something. Her friends are 20-somethings. And, with the characters and style of the film, the target audience is 20-somethings, with an emphasis on female 20-somethings invited to identify with Millie, her problems, her lies, her lying low, her unwillingness to come to terms with herself and her past, her eventually having to face facts, willingly and unwillingly.
Which makes the film sound rather serious. And, in its underlying themes, it is. However, it is all treated by the writer, Michelle Savill, with more than a comic touch. Millie gets herself into all kinds of bizarre situations, pretending she is not in Wellington, avoiding all her friends, experiencing great difficulties in finding somewhere to stay, a bizarre encounter with one of her lecturers, sending texts and photos contrived as if she were happily in New York.
As we meet her, she is on the plane heading to New York for an internship at a prestigious architecture firm, when she has a panic attack and demands to be let off the plane. Which has all kinds of consequences, regarding insurance and refunds. She wants to buy another ticket, but has no money, having sold her car to her friend, Caroline, and is experiencing complications with the bank loan… And she won’t admit to having the panic attack.
While the story has some appeal for the 20-somethings, 30-something audiences will be wanting to forget any similar kinds of experiences in their lives, 40-somethings will feel rather exasperated, perhaps, and 50 somethings will probably be thinking ill of Millie, especially if they’re thinking that this could be their daughter or granddaughter.
In the latter part of the film, we actually meet Millie’s mother, played by the always-welcome New Zealand character actress, Rachel House. Some possibilities for Millie coming to terms with what she has done and the consequences of her lies. Audiences will find the sequence of her being unmasked bizarrely amusing.
Scotney as Millie, once we have accepted the panic attack and the consequences, offers quite a consistent performance as Millie lying and as Millie lying low.
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