Show of Hands

Show of Hands is an off-beat love story centered on a car yard in an everyday suburb, where an endurance competition with a difference is being staged. The competition requires entrants to place a hand on a new Land Rover Discovery and keep it there. The winner of the car will be the person who keeps their hand continuously on it the longest. The world record for such a competition is over five days.

Attracted to this grueling Darwinian contest are people from every walk of life, who for one reason or another - avarice, poverty, anger, revenge, despair, loyalty, love - see their salvation in winning the glistening car. Inspired by a true story, Show of Hands pits all these motivations against each other, and in a grueling social experiment, reveals which human drive is the strongest.   While it is an ensemble piece the primary focus is on two people: Tom is a single, obstinate, but charismatic bankrupt. He’s a lovable rogue and so brutally blunt to everybody that it’s funny. We like him, despite his shortcomings, which are mainly that he seems willing to do anything to win. He’s addicted to competition. He lives alone. Go figure.   The other, Jess, is a solo mother and a parking warden, and is at first only interested in winning the car only to help her invalided child. She’s nice as pie but feels (as we do) she isn’t going to go very far. Not, at least, until her motives for winning unexpectedly change after Tom rubs her up the wrong way.   Some of the other characters introduced are Matt, the young, handsome son of a millionaire; Walter, an elderly retired security guard; Tayshawn, an overweight Pacific Island street kid; Betsy, a bubbly young woman looking for a man; Terry “Hatch” Back, the owner of the dealership, who is struggling to survive in this business; and the DJ at the local radio station, who sees this competition as a battle to decide which of the human drives is the strongest.   In the end, Jess surprises everybody by going right to the wire. When she finally collapses – a loser once more - she leaves the flagging Tom and the fit young Matt to battle it out to the end.    But as it proves sometimes letting go is the only way to win.   Based on actual events (such a contest took place in Lower Hutt, New Zealand in the late 80's, resulting in a world record) Show Of Hands pits all these Kiwi characters against each other and tests which inner motivation will prove the stronger.