Desperate Remedies – Peter Wells and Stewart Main – Updated version of my Amazon Review

In a strange land called Love, desperate people play with wild cards

Photo of my personal copy of Peter Wells and Stewart Mains’s “Desperate Remedies”

Rekindling an interest in “Hercules”, “Xena Warrior Princess”, and “Sinbad”, three shows that I loved to watch with my friends when they aired in syndication, I found out that Kevin Todd Smith and Michael Hurst, the actors who played Ares and Iolas, did in 1993 a New Zealand movie called “Desperate Remedies”. It was with this movie that Robert Tapert discovered the production values of New Zealand and found some of the actors for his Greek mythology Universe in “Hercules” and “Xena”.

Not a very popular movie in North America, the only available copies I could find were a VHS tape Miramax released and a Region 4 DVD in the Amazon Marketplace. As the tape’s a cut-and-crop version of the Widescreen original, I didn’t get the same atmosphere I found when I saw clips of the movie on YouTube and on the Web. Fortunately, an Amazon Marketplace seller sold the uncut and complete copy of the movie on DVD. But as it’s a Region 4 movie and since I don’t think it will be in Region 1 or 2 for a long time, I encourage anybody to look on Amazon Marketplace to find copies of this movie. There are Amazon sellers selling this product at the right time, and there is on the Web good software (i.e: VLC Player) that allows you to watch this movie on your computer.

Though the descriptions at the back of the region 4 DVD say that the story is 4.3 Full Screen, the image format I saw on the movie was Widescreen; for there were black bars at the bottom and top of the image and wider details to see. However, the movie is anamorphic, if you do intend to watch it on television with a region-free DVD Player. The soundtrack is Dolby Digital and the special features I found were the trailer, along with a commentary track from the directors. Not only that, I was pleased to find out the DVD had an extra scene that wasn’t in the VHS tape. Indeed, it is a short scene where Lawrence Hayes knocks on a door and tries to meet with an ancient fellow. Under the dark lighting and camera angle used, the scene subtly answers Anne Cooper’s suspicions that Lawrence Hayes is, as she says, “a wild card”.

Of the story, we witness Dorothy Brooks, played by the perfect Jennifer Ward-Lealand, trying to stop her sister’s addiction to opium and to her dealer by finding for that girl a future husband in Lawrence Hayes, a foreigner who just arrived from Birmingham and a character played by the late and gorgeous Kevin Todd Smith. As the same time, she has to deal with her closeted romance with Anne Cooper and a wedding with a businessman, played by her Husband Michael Hurst, while the New Zealand Wars occurs in the background.

Of the production values, I was marvelled by the splendour of the sets and costumes of the actors. Indeed, some of them made me think l was watching a movie done in the 1920s, except in colour and shot in FujiStock Film, which gave the images a grainy and wild look; reinforced by visuals and lighting effects closer to what German Expressionists and silent movies used at the early ages of cinema. Of the soundtrack, I loved how the filmmakers used Verdi’s “La Forza Del Destino” as a leitmotif throughout the movie. It was the perfect tune to the opening credits and to the scenes where Dorothy and Lawrence Hayes meet for the first time. With the rest of the soundtrack and other tunes from Strauss, Berlioz, and the composer Peter Scholes, the movie has the perfect music for its excellent story.

As for the characters, I found their dilemmas absolutely convincing and well-written and their dialogues more powerful than I expected. The story was so good that, just like with Ken Russell’s movie “Women in Love”, I wished that the story didn’t end and that I didn’t had to leave those characters. Though I wish the story had a public reception as wide as the Piano, another excellent New Zealand production that was released in 1993 and which I recommend to anybody who loved this movie.

But with the latest re-releases including a Blu-Ray and a re-premiere, let’s hope the movie gets new and wider recognition and release around the world.