MOVIE REVIEW

Whale Rider  (2003)

Starring: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Cliff Curtis
Director: Niki Caro

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Newmarket Films

Release Date: 6.06.03

Review Posted: 6.20.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara Michelle Fetters

"Amazing Castle-Hughes Rides Whale Rider to Empowering Glory"

Niki Caro’s (Memory & Desire) second feature length motion picture Whale Rider is astonishing. Not for its originality or story structure; if anything there isn’t much in this coming of age story I haven’t seen before; but for its immersive take on Maori life and community. This isn’t so much film as a living, breathing history; the people residing within Caro’s rich work springing to life in almost National Geographic-like fashion. Truly, this is a movie that sprints far beyond its traditional female empowerment roots and cements itself as one of the very best films of the year.

Based on Maori author Witi Ihimaera’s acclaimed novel – the first Maori-written novel to be published in New Zealand – Whale Rider is on one had a contemporary re-telling of the 1000-year-old legend of Paikea, on the other a moving relationship drama of a young girl and her uncompromising grandfather. It is a film that combines elements of history long gone and traditions that stand the test of time, infusing them with a child-like view that sees the world in far less black and white terms.

Through the eyes of 12-year-old Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes), the Maori community of Ngati Konohi, a subtribe of the Ngati Porou who live along the East Coast of New Zealand, is at a crossroads far different than the one community elders seem to be preparing for. Her fiercely traditional grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene, Rapa Nui), who is also the leader of their small township, is obsessed with finding a successor. Grieving ever since his son and heir – and Pai’s father – Porourangi (Cliff Curtis, Three Kings, Blow) left the village to seek his destiny abroad, Koro has never quite gotten over the fact that Pai survived childbirth while her twin brother did not.

Also taking the life of his wife, Porourangi is devastated at the double loss. Even more maddening, he knows to his father a son’s grieving at the death of a wife and child can not be tolerated when an heir must be produced. For Koro and his kin, the direct descendants to Paikea, it is their family’s responsibility to lead their people to prosperity and salvation.

See, a thousand years earlier Ngati Konohi was founded by a lost Maori fisherman swept out to sea after his boat capsized. Nearing death, he sang out for salvation, seeking help amidst hopelessness. Lifting him high upon its back, a whale lifted the dying Paikea high upon it and carried him far away unto the shores of Ngati where he started a community and led it to peace and affluence. Now, ten centuries later, with economic forces across the globe changing the shape of their small community, Koro was hoping his son’s child would be the one to bring strength, honor and tradition back to their people.

It is with this knowledge that Porourangi names his daughter after their family’s venerated ancestor, the whale rider Paikea. Koro is furious, refusing to call his granddaughter by the sacred male name, instead sticking on her the nickname Pai. Even with this knowledge, Pai loves her grandfather incessantly, and with the strength and support of her grandmother Nanny Flowers (Vicky Haughton, Her Majesty) and uncle Rawiri (Grant Roa), she’ll find some way to soften his heart and get Koro to realize just how much he, too, loves his willful granddaughter.

Soon, Koro is teaching the ancestral traditions to all of the first-born boys of the village, forbidding Pai to participate. Yet she secretly watches from the sidelines, taking part in all of their activities and learning all of the ancient customs. Even though the notion of a woman entering the pantheon of leaders inconceivable to him, when a tragedy affects the whole town will Koro have the strength to accept his granddaughter for whom she really is? For that matter, can Pai find the strength within to fulfill her destiny, bring hope to the Ngati Konohi people and still find her elder’s love and acceptance?

It’s hard to talk too much about Whale Rider without giving away key plot elements. The thing is, the film is relatively simple in that regard, so it’s not a very difficult thing to accidentally do. Where Caro’s film is heading comes as no great surprise, this is a movie that’s about empowerment and acceptance after all, it is the getting there that is so remarkable.

The cast is beyond exquisite. Veterans Haughton, Curtis and Paratene all shine. What’s notable is the sheer effortlessness of their performances. It is almost as if they are living these characters, not acting them, and that goes with everyone in the movie. Whale Rider is living and breathing like life in all its subtle nuance, glory and heartbreak. It is as if Caro and her crew took their cameras out to New Zealand and captured the trails of an actual Maori township, as if they were shooting a documentary not a feature film; it’s that real.

That goes double for amazing newcomer Castle-Hughes. Only 11-years-old when shooting the film, this is an extraordinary performance from the gifted child actor. Not since Anna Paquin burst on the scene with The Piano has any child made such an indelible impression within a feature film. Required to do all of the heavy lifting in Whale Rider, what’s most startling about Castle-Hughes performance is the complete and utter lack of an attempt to go for the “cute” in any of her scenes. She imbues Pai with a fierce determination that’s at once beyond her age and yet at the same time distinctly innocent. In fact, it is only in her singular quest for love; and what child has not spent time questing for just that from a revered family member; her destiny is laid open to her.

Still, this is a movie, and a potentially uplifting one to boot, so there are certain trends and genre conventions that Caro indubitably follows. And while her screenplay unavoidably runs into a few roadblocks because of that, her deft work behind the camera and the wondrous jobs by her technical staff see her nicely through. In fact, Lisa Gerrard (The Insider, Ali) composes some of the most haunting melodies to be put on film this year, intertwining her magnificent orchestral score with the soaring songs of the Maori. At the same time, Leon Narbey’s (The Price of Mile) starkly beautiful cinematography only amplifies the documentary feel, only to become evocatively passionate every time the movie heads under the water.

Yet through it all, it is Castle-Hughes that carries Whale Rider home. Riding the film like a veteran, the young actress stakes an early claim as to having turned in the year’s most stunning performance. Like Paquin, Foster, Wood and Taylor before her, Castle-Hughes very may well be a talent in their league. She’s that good, and Whale Rider is near-classic because of it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 4

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