Alex Casey reviews Pike River, out in cinemas nationwide this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the many enduring scenes in Pike River sees Anna Osborne (Melanie Lynskey) holed up in Sonya Rockhouse\u2019s (Robyn Malcolm) campervan during a torrential downpour after a long day in court. In the cosy cocoon, rain beating on the roof, Osborne shares how she fell for her late husband Milton when he showed up for their first date with little specks of tissue paper on his face. \u201cI thought we\u2019d get old together \u2013 unless I went first,\u201d she says in the warm dim lamplight. Snuggled up at the other end of the bed in a blanket, Rockhouse smiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real love story,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following the fight for justice in the aftermath of the 2010 tragedy, which saw the death of 29 men including Sonya\u2019s son Ben and Anna\u2019s husband Milton, Pike River is a story of corporate failures, broken promises, and everyday people doing extraordinary things. It\u2019s also a heartwarming love story, preserving the bonds between those lost and those left behind, and capturing the friendship between two women forced together by the unthinkable. \u201cI would have given up a long time ago if it hadn\u2019t been for you,\u201d Rockhouse says, years into their battle.<\/p>\n
Directed by Robert Sarkies (Out of the Blue) and written by Fiona Samuel (Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story), Pike River makes the deft choice not to get into any gratuitous recreations of the disaster itself, keeping the audience as in-the-dark as the main characters while they scramble for information from radio reports, TV news and other locals in the days following. The feelings of chaos, hope and confusion are such that when the worst is confirmed \u2013 \u201call the men are dead\u201d \u2013 the grief comes like a tidal wave as swirling wails fill the dingy West Coast hall.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s another one of those scenes that you won\u2019t be able to shake after viewing Pike River, as the whole room moves in a slow motion howl and people collapse into each other\u2019s arms. The film is rife with images that immediately sear themselves into your memory, be it the 29 wooden men lined up along either side of the Pike River entrance, or the same number of bobbing headlights piercing through the darkness. Other times, it\u2019s the smallest of aching everyday details that sticks, like the Lighting Plus ad playing softly in the background while Rockhouse sobs in her kitchen.<\/p>\n
You will not be surprised by how many times Pike River makes you cry, or how many times it makes you feel enraged, but you might be surprised at how many times it makes you laugh. Most treasured friendships don\u2019t tend to start with someone yelling \u201cwho the fuck are you?!\u201d across a table, but then most people aren\u2019t Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse. Lynksey\u2019s Osborne is bolshy and brusque, whereas Malcolm\u2019s Rockhouse is guarded and twitchy. Their walls come down slowly over shared bags of lollies in court, and cackling over \u201cfart tennis\u201d during a cup of tea.<\/p>\n
The \u201cwho the fuck are you?!\u201d room in question. Image: Matt Grace<\/p>\n