I saw this when it first came out and didn't know quite what to make of it. 14 years later, I still don't. A sort of lesbian Victorian bodice-ripper* with a gay sensibility and two men of very different attractiveness (one brooding sultry hunk - the late and very much lamented Kevin Smith - one lowlife with a good body, Cliff Curtis), the film is operatic, over the top, and somewhat camp. It takes place almost entirely indoors at night in sets of varying degrees of surreality, so that the New Zealand it is set is not one that any New Zealander will recognise, nor ever would have. (There is a town of Hope in New Zealand, in Nelson province, but 5km from the sea. The town seems to be based on Russell {Kororareka} but Russell never ran to grand opera.) The designers are very fond of the colour red, and everyone is very careless of the rubies at the centre of the plot - nobody even bothering to count them. The music relies heavily on the overture to "La Forza del Destino" - which must be annoying to people who know the opera. While these particular elements of plot, character and location have probably never been brought together before, there is nothing particularly novel about any of them. Watch it mainly for curiosity about vintage NZ film.
*No bodices were actually ripped in the making of this film.
*No bodices were actually ripped in the making of this film.