DESPERATE REMEDIES

Often described as Gainsborough on acid, and with winks to everyone from Almodovar to Powell to Sirk, this is simply an irresistible melodrama, old-fashioned at heart, but with a throughly modern tarnish. DESPERATE REMEMDIES gets ten out of ten for the most amazingly colorful look, for its costumes and sets that have to be seen to be believed, and for its spinning camerawork, all heightened by the music of Verdi (La Forza del Destino), Berlioz, and Strauss. Set during the 19th century in the imaginary colonial town of Hope, New Zealand, the story revolves around the travails of Dorothea Brooks, a dressmaker of distinction, and her live-in “companion”, Anne. Desperate to save her opium-addicted sister Rose from the evil hedonist Fraser, Dorothea hires the ruggedly handsome but penniless immigrant Lawrence to be Rose's husband. Instead, Lawrence falls in love with Dorothea. This upsets Dorothea's placid life with Anne, plunging our proud and beautiful heroine into a conflict between the head and the heart. Lovers of high camp rejoice! -London Film Festival