Saving Grace video

Saving Grace still


Saving Grace - 1997



Kahukura Productions - 88 min.
DVD UPC # 9418212010440

Cast: Kirsty Hamilton, Jim Moriarty, Tina Cleary, Denise O'Connell, James Moriarty.
Screenplay: Duncan Sarkies; Photography: Sean O'Donnell; Prostethic Effects: Richard Taylor, Michael Asquith; Editor: Michael Horton; Original music composed by: Plan 9; Sound Designer: Tim Prebble; Producer: Larry Parr; Director: Costa Botes.
Basically a story of two disturbed people - one an antisocial 19 year-old street kid, Grace, and the other a middle aged carpenter, Gerald, who believes he is Jesus Christ incarnate. Gerald offers to share his flat with Grace which results in sexual and ultimately violent events. This first solo feature by Botes, from a play by Sarkies, seems to be somewhat flat and misdirected. Hopefully Botes will do better next time.

Censor Rating: R16 -- Review Rating: C-

AVAILABILITY OF VHS OR DVD COPIES

No known sources for DVDs. New PAL copies will cost about $40nz on special order from Aro Video. Used NTSC VHS have been seen at ebay, coming from Canadian sources, for about $15us.

July 2010 - A bare-bones R0 PAL DVD is available from NZ sources, selling for about $15nz. It is presented in its original 1.33:1 format with dolby digital 2.0 English soundtrack. There are no subtitles or extras.

Screenline of Auckland has the best prices for the older 'New Zealand Cinema' series of 28 titles on DVD - $10nz each.
Click on this line for the direct link to Screenline's page for this title.


SOUNDTRACK ON AUDIO CD

There is no known soundtrack CD of this title.

Link to soundtrack sample download


REVIEWS

Moria Review

Four Word Film Review

New Zealand Film Archive Info and Reviews

IMDB Review

OFFLINE REVIEW SOURCES

Bulletin, v.118no.6246(Oct.17 2000)
Entertainment weekly, no.554(Aug.11 2000)
Listener, v.175no.3152(Oct.7 2000)
New musical express, 20 May, 2000
New Zealand herald, Sept.30, 2000
New Zealand political review, v.9no.3(Oct/Nov.2000)
North and south, no.149(Aug.1998)
Sight and sound, v.10, issue 6(June 2000)
Sunday star-times, Oct.1, 2000
Waikato times, Oct.17, 2000

"To make this curious material work onscreen, director Costa Bodes [sic] should have taken a much bolder approach. He could have gone for fierce, dark comedy or sharp, Brunuellian satire. But he shows no interest in giving a cinematic twist to this off-the-wall material, and the result is an uneven, stagy film with no particular point of view. In the technical departments, pic is modest but adequate, though some of the prosthetic effects - for example, when Grace gashes her arm in a suicide attempt - look phony" - (David Stratton,Variety, [unsourced 1998])


TRAILER & OTHER TITLE RELATED LINKS

Official Trailer

Costa Botes' Website info on the film

Information at IMDB


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