Watched it on Saturday.
It often made me laugh, but I can see why it had a limited box office take. The tone changes are way, way too abrupt. There is one way I thought the film could go some way to redeem that - but it is sort of a spoiler so I will put it below in small print.*
Other than that, the film often looked a lot like a Wes Anderson one, and I see lots of critics noticed that in their reviews. (I actually read little about this film before seeing it.) That's not a bad thing, it's just an observation.
I think Taiki Waititi is very talented, and obviously likes to mix up humour with a bit of pathos or sentimentality (even What We Do in the Shadows had romance in it.) But the broader the satire, the harder it is to pull that off satisfactorily, and a lot of this is pretty broad satire. So the sudden switches to bleak seriousness are pretty disorientating.
Overall, nice try, well made and well acted. But not a complete success.
PS: I think the film shows how we often undervalue the great job that can be done by child actors. The lead kid in this was really good, in a challenging role. Yet we never seem to see kids seriously considered for acting awards. I wonder why...
* I thought it would have been a nice touch if the father had turned up at the end. No such luck.
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