River Queen

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Day 121 of 365 of my year long challenge

Week 18: Home Time!

With Waitangi Day coming up it's time to head home and bask in all that Kiwi glory.
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An odd combination of The Patriot and Apocalypto (yes, I am aware this came before the latter), River Queen is a film of many highs and lows but sadly never gets past its overproduced and uninspired trappings. Far from memorable, the film still bears witnessing, if not for the Māori-English history then at least for one atrocious accent.

In the colonial garrisons near the New Zealand coast, Sara O'Brien (Samantha Morton) falls in love with a Māori boy. Giving birth to his son, the aptly named Boy lives amongst the colonists until his grandfather (Wi Kuki Kaa) takes him. Distraught, Sarah endlessly searches for her son while her own father (Stephen Rea) abandons the garrison. Seven years later, Sarah continues looking. Wiremu (Cliff Curtis), brother to the man Sarah loved, is now a scout for the colonial forces but deserts when he learns of his chiefs illness. Taking Sarah deep into "the interior", she must heal the legendary Te Kai Po (Temuera Morrison) in order to find her son and stay alive. Bouncing between the English and Māori camps, Sarah is now an outcast witnessing the war between both sides from its middle.

It's a little sad the River Queen is so unimaginatively generic and forgettable. It is a solid and somewhat lonely realisation of a vicious war between native and colonial forces that goes so far as to attempt to tell both sides of the story. The film may be far from equal in that regards and does little to really put forward either sides case but the potential and intention is certainly there. Even so, the film never quite rises beyond the "outsider goes native, sees the horrors of her own" clichéd story. Meanwhile, the film indulges in countless other clichéd subplots that simply slow things down and induce copious amount of eye-rolling. It was never terrible, just unnecessary.

What makes the film so appealing then is its stunning visuals. Well, mostly. When the film looks good, it looks very good but it just as often looks very, very average. The majority of the crucial, narrative focused film is shot in a very standard way though the shots never quite stay still. In sweeping landscape shots, first-person sequences and establishing zooms, the film looks absolutely gorgeous. Using the natural landscape of New Zealand, there is a rugged, untouched beauty that needs little effort to shoot well. Everything is lush, green and oddly intimate. Similarly, the film does a fine job of creating its period atmosphere, dressing everyone in appropriate and entirely believable costumes. Rarely does anything look or seem out of place.

And this brings me to the crème de la crème of bad ideas. With a cast made up of British and New Zealand talent (though only one Irishman), Kiefer Sutherland's inclusion just seems a bit strange. A terrible beard aside, the poor man simply cannot do an Irish accent. It's so distractingly bad it stops being funny and hurts the film. In a movie that obviously was a labour of love, how did this get through? I can't even mock it, it is that bad.

Regardless, Sutherland's performance is somewhat decent but pales when surrounded by much better. Morton carries a fine accent while also carrying the emotional weight of the film. Morrison does Morrison. And Cliff Curtis does the finest job of straddling that line between sympathiser and aggressor throughout the film.

River Queen obviously aims very high, and although it clearly misses, the film is still worth a watch. Clichéd, at times ridiculous and of varying degrees of quality, there is nevertheless some beauty to be found. River Queen feels like plenty that has come before and after it and reeks of the mid-2000s. Ultimately, though, all you'll remember is a bad accent and some gorgeous scenery then, soon enough, nothing at all.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 121 of 365 of my year long challenge

Week 18: Home Time!

With Waitangi Day coming up it's time to head home and bask in all that Kiwi glory.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An odd combination of The Patriot and Apocalypto (yes, I am aware this came before the latter), River Queen is a film of many highs and lows but sadly never gets past its overproduced and uninspired trappings. Far from memorable, the film still bears witnessing, if not for the Māori-English history then at least for one atrocious accent.

In the colonial garrisons near the New Zealand coast, Sara O'Brien (Samantha Morton) falls in love with a Māori boy. Giving birth to his son, the aptly named Boy lives amongst the colonists until his grandfather (Wi Kuki Kaa) takes him. Distraught, Sarah endlessly searches for her son while her own father (Stephen Rea) abandons the garrison. Seven years later, Sarah continues looking. Wiremu (Cliff Curtis), brother to the man Sarah loved, is now a scout for the colonial forces but deserts when he learns of his chiefs illness. Taking Sarah deep into "the interior", she must heal the legendary Te Kai Po (Temuera Morrison) in order to find her son and stay alive. Bouncing between the English and Māori camps, Sarah is now an outcast witnessing the war between both sides from its middle.

It's a little sad the River Queen is so unimaginatively generic and forgettable. It is a solid and somewhat lonely realisation of a vicious war between native and colonial forces that goes so far as to attempt to tell both sides of the story. The film may be far from equal in that regards and does little to really put forward either sides case but the potential and intention is certainly there. Even so, the film never quite rises beyond the "outsider goes native, sees the horrors of her own" clichéd story. Meanwhile, the film indulges in countless other clichéd subplots that simply slow things down and induce copious amount of eye-rolling. It was never terrible, just unnecessary.

What makes the film so appealing then is its stunning visuals. Well, mostly. When the film looks good, it looks very good but it just as often looks very, very average. The majority of the crucial, narrative focused film is shot in a very standard way though the shots never quite stay still. In sweeping landscape shots, first-person sequences and establishing zooms, the film looks absolutely gorgeous. Using the natural landscape of New Zealand, there is a rugged, untouched beauty that needs little effort to shoot well. Everything is lush, green and oddly intimate. Similarly, the film does a fine job of creating its period atmosphere, dressing everyone in appropriate and entirely believable costumes. Rarely does anything look or seem out of place.

And this brings me to the crème de la crème of bad ideas. With a cast made up of British and New Zealand talent (though only one Irishman), Kiefer Sutherland's inclusion just seems a bit strange. A terrible beard aside, the poor man simply cannot do an Irish accent. It's so distractingly bad it stops being funny and hurts the film. In a movie that obviously was a labour of love, how did this get through? I can't even mock it, it is that bad.

Regardless, Sutherland's performance is somewhat decent but pales when surrounded by much better. Morton carries a fine accent while also carrying the emotional weight of the film. Morrison does Morrison. And Cliff Curtis does the finest job of straddling that line between sympathiser and aggressor throughout the film.

River Queen obviously aims very high, and although it clearly misses, the film is still worth a watch. Clichéd, at times ridiculous and of varying degrees of quality, there is nevertheless some beauty to be found. River Queen feels like plenty that has come before and after it and reeks of the mid-2000s. Ultimately, though, all you'll remember is a bad accent and some gorgeous scenery then, soon enough, nothing at all.