We're Here to Help

Hearty bureaucratic broadside with Australian Erik Thomson well cast as Kiwi property developer Dave Henderson, who became hounded and eventually bankrupted by a hair-splitting IRD officials in the early 1990's.

Based on the non-fiction book (and thus actual experiences) of the author/protagonist, the confident, snappy tone is set by one of the best local credit sequences in memory. Writer-director Cullinane does an admirable job of creating narrative hooks out of bureaucratic detail, even if it feels a little hemmed-in by its factual basis as complications compound and it heads toward resolution.

Worth seeing, at least, for the bizarre casting of Michael Hurst as maverick politician, Rodney Hyde!