As director Daap P. Orr’s film debut, Miss or Misses followed the trials and tribulations of Paul and Alicia’s marriage. The influences of a chaotic upbringing are a challenging factor for Alicia who struggles to fit herself in to Paul’s predetermined ideals of what a family and a wife should look like.
Described as a “gritty romance drama”, the film juggles several genre conventions with relative success. Surprisingly, the initial tone is that of a comedy. Paul discovers his fiancé is only with him for his money and happens to be married to several other wealthy guys at the same time. A farcical situation made comedic by Lucie Prince’s portrayal of a stroppy and entitled woman trying to buy a fancy car with her 3rd husband’s money. Despite being caught in the act of fraud, she coyly suggests Paul puts the car on finance. The opening scene is designed to show Paul has poor choice in women, but sets us up to expect quite a different film than we’re given.
This tone continues as we follow Paul into work and see him lament with his bro Martin. But Paul isn’t sad for long, as a new shiny object (Alicia) has started working in the office. The way they talk about dating, women and virginity feels exaggerated and almost parodied to the point of comedy. The line “now that’s what I call a bootay” just feels incongruous in anything other than a teen sex comedy. These sorts of attitudes and comments are not really casually included in media anymore and so the conversations between Paul and Martin feel especially misplaced in a film that is neither trying to be American Pie nor ultimately challenge male or female stereotypes. It becomes clear that the comments on Alicia’s body aren’t an attempt at comedy but an illustration of the fact that looks can be deceiving. The film does not criticise Paul for objectifying women and choosing them purely based on looks but instead illustrates that it is dangerous to do so in case you miss the fact they’re crazy. It’s not exactly the feminist stance of the year. But anyway, as is to be expected in a romance, Paul decides he will stop at nothing to “get the girl”.
After feeling like we’ve been set up for a romantic comedy, the gritty drama element smacks you in the face with a breakneck change of pace. Alicia’s home life is grim to say the least. Her mother is an addict, spending all their money on smack and her brother, a violent criminal. Alicia wants an escape. Despite not initially being interested in Paul, he eventually wears her down and she agrees to go on a date with him. They date for 3 months and Paul decides they should get married. Worries that they’re moving too quickly are replaced in Alicia’s mind by thoughts of escaping her family. On these grounds, she accepts his proposal.
And it’s all downhill from there. It quickly becomes clear that Alicia isn’t “wife” material. She refuses to do anything to help around the house for no apparent reason. The jarring change to her character catches viewers off guard and she becomes obstinate and cold. The relationship becomes about winning petty wars and Alicia begins to display high levels of jealousy and paranoia. These behaviours are implicitly linked to her past experiences and relationships, but we never really dive into them in depth. Alicia clearly has some emotional problems but the film doesn’t have a mature enough grip on the more gritty aspects it tries to portray in order to do her character justice. Instead of exploring the complex and nuanced way her past has affected her, the film more leans into the crazy girlfriend trope. She becomes obsessively jealous, especially over a next door neighbour who, for some reason, sweeps her front yard while wearing evening wear. One area that holds up to scrutiny is the fact that Alicia detests Paul’s mother and refuses to meet her. It becomes evident that the issues with her own mother are so deeply scarring that she has denounced all mothers. It makes sense that Paul’s particularly close relationship with his mother is almost unbearable. Despite setting this up to be an interesting and engaging plot point, the film just misses the mark again slightly, falling back to rely on an oversimplification. Rather than delving into what is making Alicia act in this villainous way, exploring the trauma with her mother and how this might relate to her relationship with Paul, the film skirts round this and leans into shallow and petty jealousies.
Eventually, Alicia drives Paul away. At this point, she realises she should’ve treated him better and the tables are turned: she will now do anything to get him back. But time has moved on, and so has he. With an explosive ending, the film has a few nice twists up its sleeve in the final act.
Despite the plot lacking in emotional depth and the overall tone sometimes striking a dissonant chord, the story is made by Hazel Caulfield. It’s unfortunate that Alicia didn’t get the complexity and development she deserved, but Caulfield shows excellent dexterity in navigating the character she was presented with. The switch between sweet love interest and wicked wife is abrupt and effective. She’s chilling at times, and sweetly sensitive at others. Caulfield truly provides the centre of the film. Sergio Monda plays well against Caulfield as the patient husband who tries to make things work but eventually can take no more. Tiggy Brown as Alicia’s friend and confidant Natty portrays the wise woman with a certain softness and care. Debra Redcliffe and Doga Celik as Alicia’s mum and brother, on the other hand, are exceptional in their heinousness. It’s a shame they were only given a few scenes, as their combined effect is a force to be reckoned with.
Miss or Misses shows promise, but could do with a few refinements to make sure it doesn’t miss the mark.
Watch the trailer below!