HONEY is a fascinating, in depth look into the complex, moral conflict within society pertaining to euthanasia. The film reaches powerful deep emotional levels through the lens of the personal cost on the service provider, a young girl Irene, hiding behind the pseudonym – Honey.

Honey’s profession causes social isolation by the illegal activates where survival requires her to become a prolific liar; shattering her ability to have an open truthful relationship with family and friends.  This isolation is amplified with her relationship with her boyfriend, when it is violently terminated after she devolves the truth.   The only “friend” Honey seems to trust is the unlikely complex relationship with one of her to be patients where you see Honey does have the ability to create the trust and support she needs to understand her life choices.

Woven throughout the film are keyhole glimpses of the multiple cultures, race and social economics and inter generations which sweep silently through our lives but often we fail to register without the clever camera work to draw our attention to what is in front of us in daily life.   One sticking example is when Honey’s train journey’s as the train leaves the station Honey face is framed in the graffiti sprawled across the outer rim of the train, leaving a frame of a mixed race couple.

Clever use of sound through the drifting in and out of encompassing music, representing the playing through an ipod.  This captures the intriguing isolation and disconnection Honey has with the world when moving through everyday social interactions. Likewise there was remarkable use of absence of sound or over willingness of single sounds like crashing waves and heartbeats to draw the audience deep into intense emotional experiences within seemingly everyday casual actions like a swim in the surf, or a cycle ride.

The film portrays the gritty mundane role in trafficking illegal drugs to assist terminally ill individuals die.  The repetition of routine activates of airports and hotels give you the feeling of ground hog day.

There is no false glamourisation with assisting people ending their lives on their terms.