Bookworm * * * ½

Hey Dad, can you make yourself disappear?

Showing the same charm as Uproar and Hunt for the Wilderpeople  this delightful New Zealand film is well worth going to see.  It's G rated too, so you can take the whole family.

Mildred, an eleven year old girl lives with Mum in the Canterbury region of the South Island. They don't specify where but it's not the city. Dad is an absent being - that is, until Mum is hospitalised and he has to come back from the USA to look after Mildred.

Mildred is a smart mouthed sassy young thing and she is not too impressed with Dad. He's a magician whose career is pretty well on the skids.  He goes by the name Strawn. He is played excellently by Elijah Wood.

Barely knowing each other it's obvious from the start it's going to be difficult for them to get along.  But just before Mum was hospitalised she and Mildred were intending to go on a camping trip together.  Recognising that this might be a good way to get to know each other, Strawn agrees to do the camping trip anyway.

As per the title, Mildred is a well read girl and one of her interests has been the rumour of a wild black panther that roams the countryside.  The local newspaper is offering fifty thousand dollars to anyone who can get photographic evidence of the big cat. Mildred wants that money to help her Mum. 

The film is mostly set in the exquisite New Zealand wilderness with this very funny couple trying to get to know each other and get along.  She still a young lass but she  knows a fair bit about camping.  The only camping skills Strawn has are his illusionary tricks - useless.

But as always, survival is about mutual dependency: Especially when  nearly all their gear is taken from them by a couple of no-gooders.   Without maps, compass, camera or phone they have to work their way back to civilization. Meanwhile the panther is proving to be less elusive than they thought it would be.

Directed by Ant Timpson and starring very impressive new comer Nell Fisher as Mildred, it's full of that wonderful laconic New Zealand humour.  lt flounders a little once or twice but overall it really is a delightful, funny and exciting film that shows how much can be done with a small budget and a lot of talent.