When Love Comes

The New Zealand flavours (bonfires on beaches, accents all our own) are a joy to have on the big screen and it’s good to see local talent getting in some solid practice.

When Love Comes, New Zealand, 1998

M.F. Films
Director: Garth Maxwell
Producers: Michele Fantl, Jonathan Dowling
Written by: Garth Maxwell, Rex Pilgrim, Peter Wells
Editor: Cushla Dillon
Director of photography: Darryl Ward
Art directors: Anthony Sumich, Charles McGuiness
Production designer: Grace Mok
Costume designer: Kirsty Cameron
Music: Chris Anderton
Music director: Angus McNaughton

With: Rena Owen (Katie), Dean O’Gorman (Mark), Simon Prast (Stephen), Nancy Brunning (Fig), Sophia Hawthorne (Sally), Simon Westaway (Eddie)

35mm, 94 minutes, R16-coarse language & sexual references

Six friends. Three kinds of love. Katie comes home to New Zealand from Los Angeles. Stephen, her oldest friend, gives her a refuge in his house and in his heart. Stephen wants Mark, who writes great songs through a haze of alcohol, dope and confusion. The singers of Mark’s songs are Fig and Sally - they want knife-edge life and each other. Eddie wants Katie. Katie doesn’t know what she wants, as long as its not what she’s got. These six people journey through the ins and outs and ups and downs of love and destiny.

“Six characters in search of ... oh, you know, the usual - love, fame, meaning. The spin here is the sexual spectrum - gay, lesbian, hetero ... even, according to a misguided Variety reviewer, a transvestite. But there’s no mealy-mouthed tokenism here; conversely, no in-your-face strutting, either. It’s rare to see a film with gay characters that doesn’t feel obliged to make and issue of gayness, and that’s refreshing. This is the 90s, it seems to say, and this is who we are. All the characters here are at turning points. Katie is a singer who made it big overseas (‘No 1 in the US for a whole week’), hung in there for too long, and now realises it’s time time to move on. (Maybe it was her line about feeling like ‘a drag queen miming my own songs’ that threw the Variety reviewer?) She seeks refuge in Auckland with old friend Stephen while she figures out what to do. Stephen is unsettled, too - he’s in love with Mark, a young songwriter, but is dangling because Mark’s not ready to go steady. Mark’s into booze and dope a bit, but he also writes for Fig and Sally, who have a band - Fig on drums, Sally on guitar - and all three are waiting around for that big break. Finally, there’s Eddie, a hunky TV exec who turns up from LA to find out why Katie took off - and she’s not too forthcoming… The actors bring spark, humour and edginess at times, the visual style matches them with a contemporary, urban vitality (cinematographer Darryl Ward puts his commercials and music vid sensibilities to work in his first feature), and there is music and Katie’s frocks to groove to… Brunning and Hawthorne seize their roles (perhaps because they’re the least angst-ridden) and turn in two of the freshest presences onscreen. There’s real character and story potential here, especially Fig, and you wish it could have been developed. Prast, too, brings some nicely wicked touches to his performance. Owen conveys dignity and vulnerability… For all its accomplished, confident direction and valiant performances, When Love Comes is in the end bedevilled by a thin, flat story that fails to surprise.” — Helene Wong, Listener, 11 September 1999

“The New Zealand flavours (bonfires on beaches, accents all our own) are a joy to have on the big screen and it’s good to see local talent getting in some solid practice.” — Michael Lamb, Sunday Star Times, 5/9/99

“New Zealand’s When Love Comes is a lot like its partly pop, partly grunge score: A little raucous about the edges but soft and sentimental at the core. Go-for-broke performances by Rena Owen and fast-tracked Dean O’Gorman, add up to some blistering exchanges... Essentially an ensemble piece punctuated by chorus-like asides by two femme rockers, the film opens with aging former pop sensation Katie Keen’s Auckland homecoming. Katie is just back from LA, where she rode the nostalgia craze to its inevitable, self-parodic conclusion. That single US chart-topper has long since been forgotten by all but the oldies crowd. In its place: humiliating gigs at seedy LA and Venice Beach niteries. Now Katie’s left to lament, “It’s either some retro thing, or I end up being a drag queen miming to my own songs.” Providing a firm shoulder to wallow on is longtime gay friend-confidant Stephen. Unfortunately, Katie’s timing is off: Stephen is going through his own crisis, with a self-destructive young hustler-song-writer named Mark. Katie is holding her Yank lover at arm’s length because she’s not ready to concede she’s a has-been; mixed-up Mark can’t say those special three words to Stephen because, deep down, he doesn’t feel worthy of love. The film charts interaction of the three, and Katie’s sad attempt to redefine herself artistically through mawkish, autobiographical performance piece. Grunge rockers Fig and Sally comment on the action and hang with Mark, whose nihilistic jottings become band lyrics. Action is spiked with liberal sex (bi, hetero, lesbian), drug use and bland music by Chris Anderton. Eventually, Katie is harmonizing in a studio with Fig and Sally: Results play like Courtney Love meets Petula Clark… Nancy Brunning is the real find here: Her drummer is delightfully irreverent and coy, the tale’s real wag. Aussie thesp Simon Westaway does what little he can with the role of Katie’s dense Yank boyfriend, who shows up just in time for the film’s contrived weekend-at-the-beach soul-bearing. Generally glossy tech credits and resourceful use of locations belie the film’s budgetary limitations.” — Glenn Lovell, Variety, 22 February 1999

Screening: When Love Comes screened on 18 June 2008 as part of the Admissions Season.