People, Places, Things

Synopsis: Will Henry (Jemaine Clement) is a graphic novelist and lecturer at the School of Visual Arts. At the fifth birthday party of his twin daughters, Clio and Collette, his life falls apart when he walks in on his wife Charlie (Stephanie Allynne) with their friend, Gary (Michael Chernus). A year down the track he is juggling his career, his role as a father and the difficulties of being a single parent trying to date in New York.

There’s a strong autobiographical note in this film. Director Strouse himself teaches writing and film at the New York School of Visual Arts. He says that for him the film “represents everything I know, think and feel about being a parent, a writer and a person.” That’s a considerable load to try to depict on screen but to some extent he achieves his aim in this low-key, sweet story.

People, Places, Things is everything that mainstream Hollywood is not. It opens with modest titles – sketches drawn in crayon – which lead us into the life of our main character. The opening scene is the prelude to the bulk of the story but it quickly establishes the sort of guy we are dealing with. Will is simply a “nice guy”, retaining his civility in the face of his wife’s infidelity,and thereafter turning himself inside out to be a good father at the expense of his own needs. 

Clement (best known for the zany New Zealand TV series, Flight of the Conchords) brings an understated quality to his character and yet we feel the emotion underneath his almost self-deprecating exterior. When he is with his girls he comes into his own, playful and creative, but when he draws his striking black and white frames for his novels we see through to the depths of his loneliness. The juxtaposition of the seriousness of the drawings with a gentle humour works to the film’s benefit and Clement is one of those restrained comics who is able to elicit laughs with a few words or a look.

Will’s scenes with his class were very interesting to me, as he explains to his students the structure and underlying meanings behind various frames of his novels and vigorously espousing an argument for graphic novels being taken seriously. In Will’s class is a striking dread-locked Afro-American student Kat (Jessica Williams), who attempts to engineer a blind date between her teacher and her single mother Diane (Regina Hall). The two women are very credible characters, unlike the character of Charlie, who is not only unappealing in her dithering nature, but behaves in ways I found partly unbelievable. The small girls (played by twins Aundrea and Gia Gadsby) are a delight, even if their budding cello playing is not, with Strouse thankfully not overdoing the cute factor.

Whilst there is nothing earth-shattering in this film, it has a natural and gentle flow as it fleshes out its theme, stated in the oft-repeated mantra: “Happiness is not a sustainable condition”. Happiness for Will is found in moments – of creativity, of connection, and of being there as a dad – and with acceptance - coming to terms with life's harsh realities and moving on.

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