The Justice of Bunny King review – solid social drama takes a strange turn

For years, detractors of Ken Loach’s films have accused the director of simple political soapboxing, his dramas criticised for feeling inauthentic, seemingly reverse-engineered to make a larger social point. But sometimes, you need to see the work of a less successful imitator to truly appreciate the imitated – while a solid debut, The Justice of Bunny King is likely to make some viewers re-evaluate their belief that a film like Sorry We Missed You is on the heavy-handed side.

Gaysorn Thavat’s film follows the formula of Loach’s most recent collaborations with screenwriter Paul Laverty. It's most successful in its early stretches as it documents the inhumane bureaucracy that is keeping its central character away from her family. This is the titular Bunny King (an excellent Essie Davis), who has been prevented from seeing her children by New Zealand’s Government Family Services.

She has a troublesome past, but has tried to overcome it for the sake of her family, though because she lives on her sister’s couch and is only able to find work washing car windscreens, her qualities as a mother are overlooked by the system. One day, Bunny arrives home to find her brother-in-law assaulting her niece Tonyah (Thomasin McKenzie). Still unable to see her own family, Bunny hatches a plan to visit her youngest daughter for her birthday, and takes Tonyah along for the ride.

Sophie Henderson’s screenplay eventually suffers from the same problem as many of Laverty’s collaborations with Loach: it strives to encapsulate so much timely subject matter, the characters are never fleshed out beyond their broad strokes. It succeeds when grappling with the detachment of social workers immune to Bunny’s humanity, and when it weaves commentary about New Zealand’s housing crisis into her struggle to see her children. Still, it doesn’t give as much care and attention to her seemingly integral relationship with Tonya, throwing in only a brief discussion about the traumas in their pasts.

The film fully loses the plot in the third act when it transforms into a siege thriller, cheapening the quiet devastation of its earlier commentary and recharacterising its assertive protagonist with a naivety not displayed prior. Essie Davis holds the film together until the very last moment, her work as a stressed out mother succumbing to outbursts of mania recalling her excellent performance in The Babadook. But it’s a disappointing finale nonetheless, and by the end, we're left feeling like justice hasn't quite been served.

The Justice of Bunny King screened as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival 2021. It is released in UK cinemas on 11 February.