FILMEX REVIEWS

‘CONSTANCE’

New Zealand, 1984, 104 minutes. 5:30 p.m. In his feature debut, director Bruce Morrison and screenwriter Jonathan Hardy, best known for his screenplay for “Breaker Morant,” overreach in their study of a headstrong, self-enchanted young Auckland clotheshorse (Donogh Rees, who acts up no mere storm but a tornado) who tries to live her life as if she were one of her beloved screen heroines, recklessly defying the ultraconservative society of postwar Auckland. Unfortunately, the film makers succumb to the very archness and mannered ways of their own heroine, who is pretty insufferable. There’s a strong movie here, but it needs lots more maturity and control than it gets.