Directed by Michelle Savill. Reviewed by Paul Sorrell

This very watchable New Zealand comedy–drama brings to the big screen a satisfying balance of serious issues, laugh-out-loud craziness, emotional attachment and a few truly cringe-making moments. I say cringe-making, rather than cringeworthy, as Millie Lies Low is a mature local production, competently scripted, well-paced and beautifully acted by the whole cast, especially Ana Scotney as Millie, whose turns of speech and facial language are never less than pitch-perfect.

If the film has a serious side, it’s about the expectations placed on young people — especially career expectations — and how we deal with apparent failure.

A young Māori woman and talented architectural student from Wellington, Millie has got her big break — an internship at a prestigious New York architecture firm. But a panic attack at Auckland airport puts paid to her golden plans and the rest of the film charts her attempts — full of humour and pathos in equal measure — to fake it. Millie’s feelings of unworthiness and determination not to disappoint her backers are only exacerbated by the magazine hoardings and online posters featuring her face and touting her as hometown girl made good.

A digital native, Millie manages to pull off the deception through a combination of Instagram posts, video chats and some clever photoshopping that shows her apparently happily ensconced in her scholarship flat in the Big Apple. Back home, we see her hiding behind dumpsters, breaking into flats, camping in the bush beside her mum’s house and — hilariously — infiltrating a fancy-dress party in her honour clad in a plastic bin liner and an oversized motorcycle helmet with tinted visor. But, inevitably, her efforts at concealment become increasingly complex and compromised as she strives to keep one step ahead of her ex-boyfriend Henry, sassy academic rival Carolyn, lustful lecturer Scott and her well-meaning but distracted mother Marlene.

The well-paced action culminates in a scene in Henry’s bedroom, where Millie has secreted herself, that is both hilarious and excruciating. And also original in its humour — here an eye-watering Kiwi twist on French farce — a welcome feature of this inventive film by Michelle Savill, directing her first feature.

By the end of the movie, Millie is coming to see that the people who love her — the ones that count — accept her for herself, whether she’s making a big splash in New York City or hanging out with family and friends in downtown Wellington.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 267 November 2022: 28