This film was laborious to watch. Being biographical, there was no plot, which in itself was not unexpected but the film just didn't take off. Any twists were obvious a mile off.
I have never heard of Janet Frame or any of her books but I found this account of her life very moving. There are moments of beautifully acted grief and the sense of childhood pain is constant. I found the fairly obvious boot polish on her teeth, as an attempt to portray decay, a little distracting, but overall I recommend this as a moving biography.
What is the point of making a sometimes violent and depressing film, which moves at the pace of a snail? I empathize with what the heroine went through with the appalling abuse by the quacks in the medical "profession", who produced new levels of torture to inflict on this most talented writer. A film for literary masochists only. Such a disappointment.