Whale Rider Movie Review

Rating: 7.5/10

Today I had the pleasure of seeing the highly recommended New Zealand film, Whale Rider. Whale Rider is a low budget film based on a book by Witi Ihimaera. It follows the story of Pai, known as Kahu in the book, as she fulfills a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize. Her Grandfather, Koro Apirana, is looking for a new leader who he will pass on the knowledge, tradition, and culture of his tribe to. Pai, although eager to study and learn the Maori culture, is  refused/rejected by her Koro Apirana because she is a not a boy.

As I said, Whale Rider is a low budget film. It doesn’t have CGI or special effects to help carry the movie. All it has is the story and the actors. If the story is not strong enough to keep our attention, the film will fail. And that’s not the case with Whale Rider. Whale Rider goes for only one and a half hour. It tells the story it needs to tell using the actors it has got.

The main reason why this movie did not fail is the actors. The casting is pitched perfect. Keisha Castle-Hughes did a great job as Pai. Rarely is a kid actor not annoying in a movie, she gave a memorable performance as Pai. She brings emotion to this film. If it was not for her, I doubt the film would be very successful.

Rawiri Paratene, who portrayed Koro, is great as the menacing grandfather seeking for a leader. However, he is sometimes a little too wooden. The way he delivers his lines are sometimes so wooden, it didn’t have as much impact on me as it should have. All the yelling, and wooden dialogues bugged me a while watching a little bit. By being menacing, it doesn’t mean you don’t have emotion. He has no facial expression at all and doesn’t come off like a menacing person. His character really comes off as annoying to me. However, by the end of this film, you can kinda feel what he is going through. And his final scene talking to Kahu was perfect. The emotion was there. But he just failed as a menacing grandfather.

The main problem I had with this movie is the fact that they did not explain the Maori legend as well as they did in the book. If I have not read the movie, I would have absolutely no idea what the significance of the whale is or the fact that Pai has the ability to talk to whales. It also could have shown the message of the movie a little more strongly. When the movie ended, I kept thinking to myself, this could have been much better.

But all in all, Whale Rider is still a solid film with good acting, writing, and directing. It tells the world a little about the Maori culture although I feel it could have added a little more. The director did a really great job with the material he was given. The actors were superb especially Keisha Castle-Hughes as I mentioned before. Other who in my opinion did a really good job at portraying their characters include Cliff Curtis, Grant Roa, and Vicky Haughton. Well done to them. I give this film a 7.5 as everything in this movie is good. But it’s not great. I believe that the writing and acting could be a tad bit better. But all in all, a solid film. Definitely check it out. It’s not getting the attention it deserves.