The End of the Golden Weather

Co-writer/director Mune's adaptation of Bruce Mason's one-man show is full of the sort of frantic hamming which makes for bad theatre and bad cinema. Set against the unspoilt beaches of Auckland, the cluttered plot revolves around the imaginings of 12-year-old Geoff Crome (Fulford): the gallery of eccentrics on offer include an athlete who carries boulders while he trains, an overweight matron, and a lonely loony with a parasol. But Geoff reserves his affection and support for crazy Firpo (Papps), whose oft-repeated mantra of 'made-man' alludes to his ambition to run in the Olympics. The domestic tension between the budding Walter Mitty and his father is clichéd and laboured; but most maddening of all is Firpo, whose wide-eyed tantrums evoke memories of nails scraped against blackboards. Pee-wee kiwi.