52 Films by Women Vol 6. 18. THE JUSTICE OF BUNNY KING (Director: Gaysorn Thavat)
Written by Sophie
Henderson and directed by Gaysorn Thavat, The Justice of Bunny King wobbles somewhere between comedy and drama, with its initially chipper
title character (played by Essie Davis) driven to an act of desperation. Above
it hangs a social issue – that mothers in a lower socio-economic bracket in New
Zealand struggle to get housing for their fractured family, with the cause of
family breakdown driven by an abusive male partner. Henderson and Thavat don’t
go further into asking why New Zealand men from a lower socio-economic
background turn on their partners and what can be done about it. The majority
of the film’s male characters are lecherous twerps who deserve to have ‘scum’
spray-painted onto their cars – as happens here. The only kind man in the film
is Maori. It is implied that his morals are kept in check by his mum, who has a
strong sense of family.
When we first meet
her, Bunny is cleaning car windows at a busy intersection for dollar coins,
twirling her mop and applying soap judiciously. She’s good at it and one of a
small group. In the UK, they are called Squeegees after the cleaning equipment
that they use. When the police come, the group scatters. Bunny secretes her
equipment about her person and avoids notice.
She lives with her
sister, Grace (Toni Potter), whose blue tunic and long shifts suggest that she
works at a local hospital. Bunny is separated from her children, Shannon
(Amelie Baynes) and Reuben (Angus Stevens) with whom she has supervised visits
in the offices of Government Family Services, where a worker is on hand to note
down every word exchanged. Bunny breaks protocol early by taking Shannon into a
doll’s house, making a promise to hold a birthday party. Bunny’s word drives
the narrative; a better title might be ‘The Pledge of Bunny King’.
Bunny saves her
change in a plastic jar stashed away at her sister’s. Grace lives with Bevan
(Errol Shand) and a house full of children, with no space to take Shannon and
Reuben. Unable to secure accommodation – a snooty woman makes Bunny take her
shoes off and gives her no time to look at the place – Bunny proposes to
convert Bevan’s garage into a living space. ‘It’s cold in there,’ she is told.
‘I’ll get a heater – and blankets.’ Dragging a mini radiator, Bunny is about to
put her plan into action when she sees Bevan in the car with Tonyah (Thomasin
McKenzie). Initially horrified – Bevan is not Tonyah’s biological dad – Bunny
decides to break it up. She is thrown out of the house as a result and unable
to retrieve her jar of coins. However, she sneaks back and fits a lock on
Tonyah’s door. Tonyah doesn’t respect her aunt. She is quiet and insular and
won’t admit that she was in danger of being abused. For his part, Bevan alleges
that he was giving her driving lessons.
Grace doesn’t side
with her sister. Fortunately Bunny is taken in by one of the window cleaners,
Semu (Lively Nili) whose house is nevertheless rather full. Bunny is so
desperate to be reunited with her kids that she attempts to pass of Semu’s
mother’s house as her own, taking down the family photos and passing Semu’s
mother off as her landlord. The social worker is impressed – and not-so-secretly
roots for her. Nevertheless, Bunny is ashamed. She puts back all the family
photos and leaves her key behind, given to her by Semu’s mother in trust and
compassion.
It is certainly my
experience that the people with the least to give part with it willingly,
knowing what it is like to need much and to have nothing. Hearing that another
mother spent her last ten bucks to get to the Government Family Services office
and isn’t being seen straightaway, Bunny gives her some of her earnings and
advises her to make a complaint. Bunny herself is referred to a service that helps
her dress to impress, with what we imagine are second-hand clothes. She looks terrific
in a blue suit and secures a viewing to a city apartment retailing for NZ
$500,000 with allegedly north-facing views. The male realtor, Neil (Phil
Peleton), having impressed her with the push-button lock (‘saves you worrying
about forgetting your card’) soon realises that Bunny isn’t serious. However,
he is not above asking her for a drink.
Knowing it is
against the rules, Bunny visits the address of Shannon’s invitation to her
party to visit her children at their foster home. This is the film’s weakest
contrivance. It is necessary to set up the finale of the film as Bunny’s
children are moved to new foster parents and Bunny is not given their new
address. While the foster parents permit her to have some time with them, she
isn’t allowed to say goodbye to her son. She shouts through the window. This is
one instance when Henderson and Thavat change the tone mid-scene – another is
when Grace snuggles onto the sofa with Bunny, only for Bunny to anger her
sister to plead for her children to stay. Thavat and Henderson struggle to show
novel ways for Bunny to rail against the system, which is necessary to set up
the finale.
Bunny is keen to
safeguard Tonyah almost as much as get quality time with her children. Having
previously snuck into Bevan’s garage, spray painted the car and urinated
through the sunroof (a heck of an image) and having fled when Bevan drove to
her place of work, she steals Bevan’s car and picks up Tonyah on her way to
school. They spend a night in the luxury flat, eating potato chips and
sleeping. With only NZ $3.40 in her account and armed with a NZ $10 note, she
finds a novel way of buying materials for Shannon’s birthday – hiding her
‘purchases’ in a stroller box and changing the bar code on it for an item
retailing at NZ $9.99 (let’s forget about CCTV, shall we) and rushes back to
collect Tonyah and the cake she has purchased. Neil is showing the flat to a
couple and is surprised by Bunny, who retrieves both Tonyah (very angry) and
the cake.
The final act
changes tone as Bunny’s attempt to find out where her children are living goes
awry. Her regular social worker is on a training course and Bunny is denied
information. She drives (very far) to another Government Family Services
office, where the climax takes place, Bunny making use of a blade that she uses
to sharpen her eyeliner.
The ending is
undoubtedly dramatic, but it is hard to believe that Bunny would put so much at
risk, including threatening harm to others, to fulfil a promise. We learn
belatedly that Bunny was convicted on the manslaughter of her partner after he
was responsible for the death of one of her children. At the luxury apartment
complex, Bunny sees Tonyah with her face down in the communal pool and fears
the worst. Tonyah was just floating as a form of relaxation, but this prompts
Bunny to tell her story. This revelation seems contrived. It has to be placed
late in the story in order that we don’t pre-judge Bunny as a convicted felon. We
judge her primarily as a woman of limited economic means.
The finale provides
a resolution of sorts and gives Tonyah the chance to drive to a new life, in what
I suspect is a symbolic gesture. However, it doesn’t resolve the central
problem, that men like Bevan escape justice.
The title is at best
ironic and at worst misleading. The performances are fine, with Davis
presenting Bunny as a force of nature and McKenzie as a surly teenager whose
main complaint is that her mother ‘never even asked her if it [Bevan’s
attempted seduction] was true’. The contrivance weakens the drama. There is no
justification for Bunny threatening another person. Indeed, Henderson and
Thavat try to have their cake and eat it by suggesting that there is no real
danger and Bunny just wants to celebrate with her children. A Government Family
Service worker, ostensibly being threatened, tries to be helpful. The ending
would have worked in a comedy but here just seems like a wrong turn. It finally
stops The Justice of Bunny
King from being anything other
than a film festival movie, with limited overseas potential in spite of
McKenzie’s presence in the cast.
Reviewed at Leeds
International Film Festival, Monday 15 November 2021, Vue The Light Screen 11,
20:30 screening
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