Lay minister Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce) arrives in colonial New Zealand to take up position as the local clergyman to the isolated settlement of Epworth.
After he rescues young Maori woman Rangimai (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne) from a battle between two tribes, Munro finds himself expelled from the colony and set on a collision course with the violent raider Akatarewa (Lawrence Makoare), who sees English muskets as his pathway to conquering the other tribes.
After a couple of years away, director Lee Tamahori returned with last year’s The Convert. I was kind of excited for it - Tamahori was back telling a New Zealand story, and from the trailers, it looked like it might be a hair closer to the action-focused fare of his Hollywood period.
The opening crawl sets out the film’s key ideas: muskets and religion.
Set in 1830, the film takes place before the signing of both the Declaration of Independence (1835) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Our introduction to the land is Epworth - a shabby little outpost. Barely a town, it is riven with the colonial conflicts of Britain’s past and future:
Our protagonist’s only ally is a Scottish woman ostracised for marrying a Maori man, while another Celt is treated as a patsy for a crime and murdered.
Dramatically the film is familiar - and that might be why it feels a little inert.
Aside from his initial action, Guy Pearce’s character is not really a white saviour. While he has an arc of redemption, the main conflict is between Ngatai-Melbourne and Makoare.
Munro is an entrypoint for viewers, and that sense of narrative familiarity makes the movie feel more designed for an international audience.
Because Pearce is an avatar (no pun intended), there is a strange remoteness to parts of the film, as he has aspects of Maori culture explained to him.
Pearce’s character only comes to life when his backstory is revealed - he is a former soldier haunted by his past deeds - and the movie picks up at the halfway mark when he becomes involved in the burgeoning war.
This is also the point in the movie where one feels the stamp of its director.
Lee Tamahori brought a visceral energy to Once Were Warriors - Hollywood misread this as the mark of an action movie director.
There is not much of that energy here, but the final setpiece is mounted with more flair than the rest of the movie.
Not a bad movie, but The Convert feels dead - almost like the reheated leftovers of movies past.
Pearce is fine, but even as his character gains more dimension, it is so familiar that the Maori characters become more interesting partially because they do not monologue.
The film rides the line between being with Pearce and with the local tribe, but ultimately this is Pearce’s story. He finds redemption amongst the local tribe and plays a small part in defeating their enemies.
One wishes it was done in a more elegant and less generic way.
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