Weekend Herald
28-29 December 2002
A WHALE OF A MOVIE YEAR
1. Whale Rider
YES – IT'S cheating to include this, as it’s not officially out until January 30, but would you rather be told about all the great films you missed or told about one film you should see in 2003?
We’ve been lucky enough to see it already. We haven’t quite recovered. We’re going again, we suspect we will love it even more second-time round.
To say director-writer Niki Caro’s adaptation of Witi Ihimaera’s novel packs a bit an emotional wallop is an understatement: there are parts of Whale Rider which dance a haka on your tear ducts.
That’s all because of Caro’s gentle way with her story and the devastating lead performances of Keisha Castle-Hughes, as 12-year-old Paikea, and Rawiri Paratene as her grandfather. Both living in an East Coast settlement steeped in the myth of the original Paikea, an ancestor who arrived on the back of a whale, the pair become involved in a kind of battle of wills about the leadership of their tribe.
The result is magical and resonates for beyond its specific location – the audience at this year’s Toronto Film Festival thought so when they voted it best movie of the acclaimed North American festival against some heavyweight competition. About now, Caro is readying to go to the Sundance Film Festival where it will undoubtedly pick up more international momentum. Yes for most of us Whale Rider will be a movie of 2003 and we’re picking it’s going to be or defining film of the New Year. But, hey, its story starts in 2002 and this film about a New Zealand myth may well become an international legend.
- Russell Baillie