Crush (1992)

On the way to interview a novelist, Lane and Christina are involved in a car crash which leaves literary critic Christina brain-damaged. Lane undertakes the assignment and becomes attracted... See full summary »

Director:

Alison Maclean

Writers:

Anne Kennedy, Alison Maclean

Stars:

Marcia Gay Harden, Donogh Rees, Caitlin Bossley

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marcia Gay Harden	...	Lane
Donogh Rees	...	Christina
Caitlin Bossley	...	Angela Iseman
William Zappa	...	Colin Iseman
Pete Smith	...	Horse
Jon Brazier	...	Arthur
Geoffrey Southern	...	Patient
Shirley Wilson	...	Intensive care nurse
Denise Lyness	...	Physiotherapy nurse
Jennifer Karehana	...	Physio nurse
David Stott	...	Stephen
Harata Solomon	...	Aunty Bet
Caroline De Lore	...	Colleen
Trish Howie	...	Nurse
Phil McLachlan	...	Ward sister

Storyline

On the way to interview a novelist, Lane and Christina are involved in a car crash which leaves literary critic Christina brain-damaged. Lane undertakes the assignment and becomes attracted to the novelist's 15 year old daughter, leading to stormy emotions.

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Plot Keywords:

literary critic | f rated | title directed by female | masturbation | brain damage | 

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Genres:

Drama

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User Reviews

Doesn't quite live up to its expectations

Boiling mud pools, a deranged car accident victim, a precocious teenager, and a wild-woman who constantly applies blood-red lipstick. With some excellent performances from three female leads, Crush should be a runaway success. Sadly, it veers off the highway and never achieves its full potential, even though it contains enough specimens of curious merit that will be bottled and studied by ardent celluloid pathologists.

Lane (Marcia Gay Harden) is visiting New Zealand with her friend Christina to interview an award-winning novelist when their car comes off the road. Lane crawls out, but Christina needs a lengthy stay in intensive care and the make-up department before venturing out and confronting her pal who was driving. Lane, meanwhile, bonds with Angela, the author's 15yr old daughter, before seducing the old man himself and convincing us she's not gay. Naturally, a few interpersonal tensions are in order and, if you can sit through nearly two hours of badly scripted, poorly edited, unbelievable waffle, you will eventually find out who's really got it in for whom. On the way, you can enjoy some of the largely irrelevant natural attractions of New Zealand - particularly Rotorua - at least if you can bear to miss the superior production values of the average tourist video.

Among the special features on the DVD are a director's commentary (shared with Marcia Gay Harden) and an interview with the director Alison Maclean. These are essential viewing, as they enable you to see all the great things they had in mind which unfortunately don't come out in the film.

Rotorua is a smallish city on New Zealand's North Island and a major tourist attraction. It is surrounded by volcanoes, lakes, parks, and the geothermal wonderland of geysers and boiling mud pools that Kiwis love so much - and is also a showcase for Maori cultural activities. This makes it an obvious attraction for filmmakers, except that no-one apparently mentioned to them that some relevance to the story might have been a help. The opening credits linger on the bubbling mud pools, the camera loiters on the hot springs, but the script struggles to fit them into the plot. Lane is an interesting character, a sexually ambiguous intruder that cares nothing about what others think, but although well played she appears to have fallen out of a different script - maybe an old film noir or a supercharged femme fatale; and the interaction between her and the other players is so lacking in chemistry as to be non-existent. Better handled, she would truly be a force that drains the others, but I remained unconvinced that they would really be drawn to her so easily and found I had to admire the intention more than the result.

"What do you do for entertainment around her?" asks Lane, in a tone that reminded me of a wild west anti-hero. If this is all that is on offer, the answer probably won't be 'watching a movie.'

Details

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 January 1993 (France)

Also Known As:

Összetörve

Filming Locations:

Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,205, 29 August 1993

Gross USA:

$107,792

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$107,792

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hibiscus Films, New Zealand Film Commission, New Zealand On Air

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1