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Kiefer Sutherland sporting a kilt and a laughable Irish accent and beautiful scenery gorgeously photographed are but two of the attractions in River Queen, a 2005 film that earned considerable acclaim in New Zealand, where it was produced, but was never released theatrically in the United States. Set in the 1860s, writer-director Vincent Ward’s tale stars Samantha Morton as Sarah O’Brien, a young Englishwoman who travels with her father (a cameo by Stephen Rea) to New Zealand, where the nasty imperialists are stealing the land and trampling the culture of the indigenous Maori. A brief and dangerous liaison with a
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Kiefer Sutherland sporting a kilt and a laughable Irish accent and beautiful scenery gorgeously photographed are but two of the attractions in River Queen, a 2005 film that earned considerable acclaim in New Zealand, where it was produced, but was never released theatrically in the United States. Set in the 1860s, writer-director Vincent Ward’s tale stars Samantha Morton as Sarah O’Brien, a young Englishwoman who travels with her father (a cameo by Stephen Rea) to New Zealand, where the nasty imperialists are stealing the land and trampling the culture of the indigenous Maori. A brief and dangerous liaison with a young native (who soon dies) leaves her with a child known only as "Boy." When the six-year-old’s Maori grandfather kidnaps him, Sarah embarks on a seven-year odyssey to find him, a search that finally ends when a warrior named Wiremu (Cliff Curtis) offers to take her to him if she will use her healing powers to cure the Maori chief of his "coughing sickness." And so it goes, with Sarah discovering that her son is torn between his two heritages while she herself is attracted to both Wiremu and the soldier (Sutherland) who defends her--all while the Maori "rebels" and their colonial oppressors are battling it out in the woods and along the rivers of this untamed wilderness. The idea is basically sound; the battles scenes are well staged, and Alun Bollinger’s cinematography is wondrous (although it’s sometimes so color-saturated as to suggest an overripe Thomas Kinkaid painting). But in his quest to create a great, sprawling epic, Ward too often goes way over the top, as a surfeit of heaving breasts, manly chests, searching looks, and fraught dialogue, all to set to the sounds of heavenly choirs, bring to mind a Harlequin romance scored by Enya. Most tellingly, much of the narrative exposition is delivered by Morton in voice-over, usually an indication that the script was lacking in the first place. --Sam Graham
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Manufacturer: Weinstein Company
Release date: 25 November 2008
EAN: 0796019816755 UPC: 796019816755
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