IT IS, perhaps, no longer worth complaining that certain independent comedies rely too heavily on our affection for behavioural eccentricities and psychological irregularities. Thirty years before Napoleon Dynamite began sloping about Idaho, films such as Harold and Maude and Pink Flamingos had already flown the flag for promiscuous quirkiness. These pictures now belong to their own indestructible genre.
Eagle vs Shark - which, sadly, does not feature an actual clash between those beasts - is a perfectly acceptable addition to the school of comedies in which odd-looking people say bizarre things for no good reason. Set in New Zealand and filmed for the price of a fish supper, Taika Waititi's feature debut concerns the juddering romance between a shy, but decent, young woman and a faintly demented man with bad glasses and worse hair.
Shortly after losing her job at the local fast food joint, Lily (Loren Horsley) makes her way to a fancy dress party hosted by Jarrod (Jemaine Clement) and, after very nearly defeating him at a beat 'em up video game, agrees to go to bed with the fortunate buffoon. She is dressed as a shark. He is dressed as an Eagle.
Shortly thereafter, Jarrod announces that he is about to return to his family home to give the local bully a sound thrashing. Lily, inexplicably besotted, gets her brother to drive them all to the remote locale, where further - oh, yes - quirkiness occurs. Apple cores sprout legs and walk. Jarrod's siblings flog Lily potentially lethal cosmetics.
You know the sort of thing.
It all sounds too twee for words. But the actors exhibit sufficient belief in their roles to give the film real emotional bottom, and the dialogue features an impressive number of quotable absurdities. It helps that the
New Zealand accent - so many vowels rendered as a short i - lends a further layer of oddness to proceedings. But even Kiwis, for whom the inflections will seem commonplace, should find plenty to enjoy in this likeable, light- weight fable.
