Bookworm

What’s it about?

11-year-old Mildred's world is turned upside down when her estranged father, the washed-up magician Strawn Wise, comes to look after her and agrees to take her camping to find a mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.

The facts

• Directed by Ant Timpson (Incredibly Strange Film Festival, Come to Daddy, The ABCs of Death)
• Stars Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher
• Written by Toby Harvard and Ant Timpson
• English language
• Runtime: 103 minutes
• Filmed in Canterbury, New Zealand

Why did it get this rating?

This film was rated by the Film and Video Labelling Body. You can find out more about rating here.

This family adventure comedy is from the mind of Ant Timpson, known for his Incredibly Strange Film Festival. The story has moments of peril, tension, and dark humour, but nobody dies.

Coarse language

The film contains mild language such as 'a*s*hole’, ‘sh*te’, crap, ‘bastard’ and ‘dick’.

Content that may disturb

The film opens with Mildred attempting to trap the family cat outside her bedroom window. This seemingly cruel activity is foiled and the cat runs away.

Through a rapidly edited sequence we learn that Mildred’s mother has been electrocuted by a faulty toaster. We see a brief shot of her motionless body (legs only) in the kitchen. We learn through conversation and voiceover that she is in hospital and is in a coma. Several characters repeat that she’ll survive the coma. This concept may be distressing for younger viewers but Mildred is shown to be a strong, independent 11-year-old who is coping.

The characters come across a pair of hikers who appear friendly as first. It’s soon revealed through conversation that they are bad. Strawn finds himself having to make an uncomfortable choice and allows the man to rob him of all their belongings because he claims to be kidnapping his daughter.

Scary scenes

The characters discover a dead deer which has been mauled. We see a close up of the deer’s gory wound but it is brief. There is discussion about it having been attacked by the Canterbury panther. This adds an element of thrill to the journey.

There is a brief jump scare when the wild cat appears while they’re trying to run away. They hastily climb across a rope suspended very high above a valley. This scene may frighten younger viewers.

In a climactic scene Strawn steals a car to transport injured Mildred out of the bush and away from the bad guys. We see an angry character chasing them as they drive dangerously away. Strawn is distracted while driving and crashes the car with Mildred lying injured in the backseat. It’s a frightful moment but we then see them safely in hospital.

Drug references

As Mildred and her dad hike through the wilderness, they come across some mushrooms. Mildred educates her dad on the different types of mushrooms especially the ones to avoid eating.

As the characters escape across the valley the rope breaks and they crash to the ground below. Mildred is shown trapped under a tree and is in pain. We don’t see any injury details. Her father hunts for special mushrooms to ease her pain and we see him feeding them to her. Mildred hallucinates and the log that has pinned her appears to magically levitate off her legs.

Further information

• Why are ratings and content warnings important for me and my whānau?
• Bookworm: Ant Timpson’s new film has the goods to be the next Wilderpeople (NZ Herald)