Jealousy, longing, and sexual repression lurk under the surface of the rolling green hills and supposedly quiet life of a rural town in New Zealand. Nestled in this landscape, Lydia lives alone in a large homestead, working as a seamstress and costume designer for the local theater. Growing up with charming boy-next-door Justin, Lydia harbors a deep crush, but fear of rejection leaves her skittish . . . yet lustful. Enter Luella Miller, an attractive twenty- something drifter with a penchant for seducing men and leaving women scared. Lydia first finds Luella in a disheveled state and offers her lodging and care, not anticipating Luella’s bewitchment and the betrayal and destruction that will follow.

Written and directed by Australian Dane Giraud (The Waiting Place), this frothy love story certainly has degrees of intrigue. While Luella Miller is generally bad news, her seductive ways actually release the long held inhibitions within other people. However, affairs with Luella happen so fast that her targets are left agitated and unsure; this overwhelms their sensibilities for the fallout to come. So we’re left watching people constantly acting upon their passions with the shit hitting the fan afterwards. Initially interesting, yes, but their lack of self-control ultimately produces grave results, and with integrity eroding away, no character achieves any personal growth or victory.

The actors are very good, and without their talent the film would certainly fall flat. Perfectly cast Sara Wiseman had worked with Giraud before in The Waiting Place; here she plays Lydia drenched in maudlin longing and sexual repression, but with some sense of hope. Wild-faced beauty Sia Trokenheim plays brazen Luella Miller with abandon and believability (including lots of black eyeliner). Philip Brown plays Justin with the right balance of boyish charm and masculine, bullish fever to help balance this estrogen-heavy film. The wise editing by Campbell Farquhar keeps a healthy pace going, and Paul Tomlin’s thoughtful photography certainly enhances the atmospheric mood.

The movie is recorded on digital video - its biggest downfall. Despite the talent involved and low budget, the presentation really exhibits a specific lack of finesse and movie-magic that traditional 35 mm, or even 16 mm film, captures. Also, although I liked the first two acts of the movie, I was disappointed with the ending. It is arguably fair and credible, but I found it ultimately cliched, doomed, and uninspired. I hope Dane Giraud can get his hands on film equipment or film-like resolution gear someday soon, because overall, I think he shows promise.

The film is unrated, but the adult sexual activity would likely warrant it an R status.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

This film’s original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio is presented anamorphic video. This is not 16 mm or 35 mm film, but appears to be digital video. There are costs and benefits to this technique. Colors are saturated nicely in most scenes. DOP Paul Tomlins has an eye for dusty shades of blue, red, and wood grains, which leaves the film somewhat somber, but with an underlying vibrancy. The widescreen bars above and below the active image are a light gray, which is very distracting. The blacks are quite deep, although black crush frequently halts the potential for better depth in either evening or daylight scenes. Whites bloom in front of sun lit windows, and that is discouraging, as it is reminder of the ultimately low-budget feel of the film. The film also has some vertical banding problems, and it displayed the occasional artifact. Compression issues didn’t seem to be a problem, although edge halos seemed to be marginally visible. Despite the talent behind the acting, direction, composition, editing, and lighting, the entire film really felt like a rehearsal before finally recording on 35 mm or 16 mm film stock.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The audio is presented in Dolby stereo. Some stereo separation is noticeable in the fronts at times, especially in scenes with traffic. The frequency range is merely average and the track is flawed screaming distortion. Bottom end is semi-present; it seems more like lower mid-range. Dialogue is mostly quite clear, and better recorded than I expected. The subtle music by Samuel Holloway is incorporated well and has a decent dynamic range, but is not very stirring. If you don’t have high expectations for the audio, the mix suffices.

No other audio options, subtitles, or closed captions are available.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

An untitled featurette (6:30) is included. Principal actors talk about their characters and the script, and filmmakers talk about some the filming processes and some of the challenges. Mildly interesting, but don’t expect huge conflicts or juicy stories.

This 90-minute film contains 16 chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

No DVD-ROM features are included.