Film No. 79 (2015) Now Add Honey. November 10th.

Film No. 79 (2015) November 10th.  7.00 PM GREATER UNION Innaloo.

 

"One of your piping bags is out" (One of a few slivers of humour in Honey)

 

 

Director Wayne Hope and wife Robyn Butler have set new standards in Australian TV comedy (Middle Class Bogan and The Librarians) over recent years. Because of the standards they set it was not surprising they turned their talents to a feature film. I'd have to say that if Now Add Honey had appeared as a tele movie on an evening slot one Saturday I'd have been impressed. However as a stand alone feature film it doesn't escape from it's television tendencies.

 

The Parenthood series had a warmth which gave us an opportunity to relate to the characters of its dysfunctional family. Now Add Honey is immaculately choreographed but we rarely get a moment to attach ourselves emotionally to any of the characters, except perhaps for the clowning escapades of Alex played perfectly by Hamish Blake.

 

Caroline (Robyn Butler) runs her family. She's a mother, a sister, an aunt and a wife. We get that in the first 15 minutes then the complications arrive on two fronts. Her sister Beth (Portia De Rossi) and niece Holly (Lucy Fry) arrive in Oz from the US to release a single which is going to separate Holly from her Honey persona which is big in the TV kids market. And husband Richard(Eric Thomson) is causing grief because he isn't always where he  says he is or should be. Then Beth falls foul of customs at the airport so Caroline must become the mother to Holly for a time. And so the complications proliferate.

 

And the film deals with all of those complications in short sharp sequences. But the film is all about relationships and I knew what Hope wanted us to feel with each of the interactions but unfortunately it rarely happened. The production is slick and colourful but I think it will gain a bigger audience when it is streamed to a TV audience.  6GUMS