Whale Rider Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)June 18th, 2003
Whale Rider
Matinee
I had the good fortune to see this film with my New Zealander friend, who had all kinds of nostalgic insight into the elementary school life of the Maori girl around whom this film centers. While occasionally a little heavy handed and obvious with the metaphors (you can almost see the yellow arrow reading "Symbolism" and pointing at a scene with an outboard motor, for example), the story of Whale Rider is still movingly portrayed by Kiwis Keisha Castle-Hughes and Rawiri Paratene.
As the most recent in a long line of chiefs dating back to the original whale rider of legend, Paikea, young miss Paikea (Pai) had the misfortune of being born a girl, among other things. Her grandfather Koro (Paratene) rejects her as the heir to the chiefdom, and stubbornly tries to revive a life without his own family blood to help him. Where is her father? Porourangi (Cliff Curtis, actor of many ethnic types) has failed his bloodline as well, and will not be beholden to Koro's fruitless dreams of the old ways. Keira is left holding the bag, which she is more than willing to do, but Koro will have none of it. I am giving nothing away - this is all established within 5 minutes of the film's beginning.
It's a simple and poetic story of legend and the inevitable change that is needed in order to maintain tradition, but what really makes the film worth seeing is 13 year old Castle-Hughes. The novel by Witi Ihimaera will doubtless be a fascinating read, but I am glad to see Castle-Hughes brave, genuine face in my mind now. Nothing about the tale is unpredictable (save for a couple of spectacular set pieces), but neither is any of it is dull or unbelievable, and the story feels fresh when young Keisha tells it. She loves her family, loves her home, and loves the legend of Paikea. She feels the legend's blood pounding in her veins, and her grandfather's blatant and metaphorically expressed stubbornness only raises her blood pressure more. She is not superhuman, well, not really, but she is super determined, and her performance is really wonderful. The film is worth seeing for her performance, and for the interesting Maori legend and cultural tastes we get to sip.
If you have seen the preview, you know the legend of Paikea, the chief who found New Zealand riding to it on the back of a whale. The film cuts to swimming whales, either as foreshadowing or weather forecasting; the whales have their day in the sun, so to speak, in the film, but every shot we wonder, what is the meaning of this beast to these people beyond what brought them here. By the end we see the rare interactions of man and nature that are not damaging, not harmful to the animals, and are also lovely to watch.
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These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
