MILLIE LIES LOW
New Zealand, 2021, 100 minutes, Colour.
Ana Scotney, Jillian Nguyen, Chris Alosio, Sam Cotton, Karen O'Leary, Cohen Holloway Erin Banks, Rachel House.
Directed by Michelle Savill.
As it emerges, the important word in the title is, in fact, lies. The scenario begins with a huge lie which has enormous consequences, whopper consequences – and more and more lies.
The Millie of the title, an architecture student in Wellington, spends most of the action of the film lying low in Wellington when she should be in New York City. But, in terms of the audience spending 100 minutes with her, she is centre screen, in every sequence, not lying low at all with the audience.
Millie is a young twentysomething. Her friends are twentysomethings. And, with the characters and style of the film, the target audience is twentysomethings, with an emphasis on female twentysomethings invited to identify with Millie, her problems, her lies, her lying low, her unwillingness to come to terms with herself and her past, her eventually having to face facts, willingly and unwillingly.
Which makes the film sound rather serious. And, in its underlying themes, it is. However, it is all treated by the writer, Michelle Savill, with more than a comic touch. Millie gets herself into all kinds of bizarre situations, pretending she is not in Wellington, avoiding all her friends, experiencing great difficulties in finding somewhere to stay, a bizarre encounter with one of her lecturers, sending texts and photos contrived as if she were happily in New York.
As we meet her, initially, she is in the plane, has a panic attack and demands to be let off the plane. Which has all kinds of consequences, insurance and no refunds, wanting to buy another ticket, the fact that she has sold her car to her friend, Caroline, and needs the cash to pay for another ticket, complications with the bank loan… And she won’t admit to having the panic attack.
While the story has some appeal for the twentysomethings, 30 something audiences will be wanting to forget any similar kinds of experiences in their lives, 40 somethings will feel rather exasperated, perhaps, and 50 somethings will probably be thinking ill of Millie, especially their thinking that this could be their daughter or granddaughter!
In the latter part of the film, we actually meet Millie’s mother, played by the always-welcome New Zealand character actress, Rachel House. Some possibilities for Millie coming to terms with what she has done and the consequences of her lies. Audiences will find the sequence of her being unmasked amusing, bizarrely amusing.
Ana Scotney as Millie, once we have accepted the panic attack and the consequences, offers quite a consistent performance as Millie lying and as Millie lying low.
