West of Eden (2017)
1h 58m | PG-13
New Zealand independent drama following a young Māori man who moves to the country to rebuild his life after facing prejudices around his sexual orientation. He takes on a job on a farm where he grows attached to the farmer’s son. But when their relationship grows, the situation steers into darker territories…
Director: Alastair Riddell
Studio: Little Red Hen
Genre: Drama, Romance
Video: 720p
Cast
Kieran Foster
as Billy Williams
Luke Thompson
as Tom Henshaw
Vanessa Riddell
as Eva Henshaw
Peter Ford
as Frank Henshaw
Jordan Blaikie
as Pete
Renee Sheridan
as Diane (voice)
Reviews
This is quite a good looking, though shockingly slow tale of a young gay man who leaves his family to work on a remote farm to escape the bigotry (and brutality) of his former workplace. Snag is, when he arrives he meets and falls head over heels for the young son of the owner of his new farm in rural New Zealand. To be fair to both Kieran Foster in the lead as "Billy" and his very pretty love interest "Tom" (Luke Thompson) they both perform well enough, its just the pace and the direction that meander uphill in a thunderstorm. It does attempt to appraise the prejudices and hatred that existed at the time, but there are too many distracting sub-plots that - given this is based on a true story - though probably factual in nature, add little to what is essentially a love story that does not end as anyone planned. The scenery is magnificent, and the score compliments that photography well but otherwise it is rather a dreary, doom-laden story that offers precious little by way of redemption - on any level. Oh, and it rains a hell of a lot...