It makes a change to come across a New Zealand Western, but for all its handsome photography and stunning locations The Stolen doesn’t make the best advertisement for the genre. All the same, Alice Eve puts her best stiff upper lip forward as a posh Englishwoman who braves all sorts of perils as she strives to rescue her kidnapped baby son from a remote South Island mining town, circa 1882, joining a wagon-train carrying a new consignment of whores to get there. Jack Davenport fares less well, however, as the bluff Northerner who lords it over the town, and the plotting is too episodic to keep us in the grip of the narrative. Look out, though, for Rocky Horror Show creator Richard O'Brien as Gold Town's dapper saloon keeper.
Certificate 15. Runtime 97 mins. Director Niall Johnson
The Stolen debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on 10 May.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drVHKmLf4WM
