I was really surprised that this film got such positive feedback. I watched it in college last year for some reason I really can't remember, and I found a lot of it laughable. I see that it addresses social and domestic issues such as sexual abuse, domestic violence and the marginalisation of the Maori descendent's within New Zealand, but the costumes are just so unbelievable 80's, leather waistcoats and stuff like that, and the little electric guitar chords played every time there's a transition between scenes... I mean it just makes it hard to take it seriously. I've never been to New Zealand, but I can't believe that on every ghetto corner there's leather clad muscle men with tattooed faces pushing weights and beating the crap out of each other (I may be wrong though, and so seriously anyone that has more first hand experience, please feel free to correct me). I'm not saying that I don't believe that there's violence, I mean living in Nottingham in England I've been jumped 3 or 4 times within the last couple of years, I just think without using such cheesy, stereotypical and unrealistically 80's looking characters it would've been a lot easier to watch and the message would've been a lot more potent. Apart from a few moving (and sometimes very unpleasant) scenes, it was overblown, unrealistic and generally pretty awful. It seems that a lot of people will disagree with me on this one... it's got me quite confused to be honest, I saw it in the top 50 independents section and clicked on it expecting it to be a different film... Anyway I personally didn't think much of it, but a lot of people did so I won't tell you not to watch it. I'll just assume I missed something. Edit: Just to clarify, I'm really not saying this to get people arguing or to get attention or anything, i genuinely don't understand the status this films achieved... to be honest I'm gonna watch it again and see if my opinion changes, 'cause I've just read through about 6 pages of positive reviews!