Desperate Remedies

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Desperate Remedies ★★ 1993 (R)

Enjoyment will rest on the viewer's appreciation of campy melodrama. In a Victorian-era New Zealand town, regal shop owner Dorothea Brook (Ward-Lealand) is trying to find a husband for her difficult younger sister Rose (Mills)—who happens to be pregnant and a drug addict. She spots handsome sailor Lawrence (Smith) and decides he'll do but Lawrence is instantly smitten with Dorothea (who's also having heart palpitations over the hunk). Unfortunately, her current lover is Anne (Chappell) and Dorothea has also decided on a marriage of convenience with ambitious politician William (Hurst). It's all very operatic. 92m/C VHS . NZ Jennifer Ward-Lea-land, Kevin Smith, Lisa Chappell, Michael Hurst, Kiri Mills, Clifford Curtis; D: Stewart Main, Peter Wells; W: Stewart Main, Peter Wells; C: Leon Narbey; M: Peter Scholes.