In her likeable first feature, taken from her husband's book, Rosemary Riddell, whose day job is as a judge in New Zealand, did well to cast Whale Rider's excellent Maori actor Rawiri Paratene.
He is Arthur, a slightly off-kilter inhabitant of a boarding house full of homeless eccentrics. He fancies himself as the second son of God but wouldn't harm a fly.
Falling for a fragile community worker (Sara Wiseman), whose marriage isn't working, he has a night of sex under the moon and tries to prevent the prim locals from forcing a sale of the boarding house.
But his mind finally goes and it all looks finished for him, her and the family of indigents. The suggestion is that we're all in a hurry to get where we don't want to be.
Which is probably true but, in a cynical age, Arthur's "magic" isn't all that easy to take, beautifully as Paratene plays.
The Insatiable Moon
Cert: 15
