The Dark Horse came out as pat of the International Film Festival, but it was released shortly thereafter as a general release and so I
was able to see it in a “normal” session at the Lighthouse Cuba as the IFF
itself continued on.
First off, things I learned about Gisborne: when it rains,
it rains hard, as if someone had turned a fire hose on, though even the rain is
a little afraid of falling on a gang party. The Police seem fairly absent
as well, unless called upon by white Mental Health nurses. And I also
learned that adults don’t really seem to care about other adults, though they
love caring about kids – not that there is anything wrong with the latter, but
the former seems a bit cruel.
The tale follows the “real life story” of Genesis (a pudgy
Cliff Curtis), recently released into his gang leader brother’s care from a
life in an institution for the mentally unwell. A chess champion in his
youth and truly obsessed with the game, Genesis joins a club for wayward youth
run by a friend of his to teach the kids how to properly play chess and taking
them to a championship tournament in Auckland where they can compete against
“the best in the land”, or somesuch. Against this backdrop, Genesis has
to deal with his nephew Mana being inducted into the local Vagrant gang, a
prospect his father is intent on making happen while Mana seems less convinced.
It’s a really good story, told mostly very well.
Curtis is amazing as Genesis, and the rest of the cast carry their roles really
well too. The cinematography occasionally veers into shaky vision
territory, and the music is an interesting mix of music across multiple genres,
and overall it comes together pretty well.
Its actually more the way the story evolves that makes
things feel a bit manipulative. Mana’s father arrives about 5 minutes
after a critical moment has past even if it means he had to travel about 5
hours to get there; as mentioned, Genesis fragile mental state is well known
but his so called “friends” leave him to his own devices when it seems pretty
obvious he would not be handling things well at all; and a scene where
Genesis’s fitness to be around the troubled youth comes and goes but left me
wondering, “which kid’s parents had the problem again?” as it all seems to
disappear as inconsequential a few minutes after it is raised.
There are no real surprises either as the story slowly
unfolds. This is a lot like most mentor films, where an older person
brings out the best in the youths under their care and in the end finds
redemption themselves as well. The mildly surprising part though was that
the fate of the kids was not revealed – we got the usual “this is what happened
to” follow up slide for Genesis, but the kids are just dismissed with a blanket
“they had better lives”, which seems a bit unfair and conspiratorial as well.
Nonetheless, the film itself is funny and touching and
moving and well put together, so there is very little “wrong” with it. It
does run in at about 2 hours long and I think could have used a bit of a trim
too. I would also love to know where the house was that the chess club
stayed the night in Auckland, with the most superb view of the downtown skyline
at night I think I have ever seen.
Verdict: The Dark Horse refers to the characters, not the
film making style or the way the story is told, which is pretty straight
forward. But its done very well, with a great main character in Genesis,
and an incredible actor in Cliff “Uncle Bully” Curtis. And the oldies in
my film were very happy with it too – as I heard whispered quite regularly
throughout the Lighthouse screening… 7 pawns out of 8.
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