To try and explain to a Westerner in the 1800s the life and breadth of culture that encapsulates Hawai‘i, where would you begin? In Marc Forby’s “Princess Ka‘iulani,” the Princess (Q’orianka Kilcher) attempts this with shells for a female English
To try and explain to a Westerner in the 1800s the life and breadth of culture that encapsulates Hawai‘i, where would you begin?
In Marc Forby’s “Princess Ka‘iulani,” the Princess (Q’orianka Kilcher) attempts this with shells for a female English schoolmate, Alice Davies (Tamzin Merchant), attempting to befriend her.
While it’s a challenging task that at this moment disparagingly fails, unfortunately several moments in Forby’s film also fall flat.
Telling the history of Hawai‘i during its overthrow is a difficult undertaking, no doubt, but the opportunity was there: Princess Ka‘iulani’s experience was an apt lens through which to view one of the most significant changes in Hawai‘i’s history.
Her story and the story of the kingdom of Hawai‘i alike were rife with potentially-compelling material. However, disappointingly, they were instead presented in this movie in a series of misguided attempts to reconstruct a half-baked love story of a princess and a failure to properly address sovereignty issues that would have lent the story context, weight and accuracy.
The Maori actress does, despite the flaws of the script, deliver respectful homage to the princess, though some might argue her good looks were less than that of Ka‘iulani’s and more a caricature of what Hollywood envisions to embody what “exotic” beauty should look like.
Also disappointing, many of the characters are muddied hybrids, confusing further the plotline. One such example is Sanford Dole (Will Patton) portrayed as a Hawaiian sympathizer, despite also being a known and willing conspirator in the overthrow of Queen Lili‘uokalani.
Both King Kalakaua (Ocean Kaowili) and Lili‘uokalani (Leo Anderson Akana) are presented with a proud nobility due to both monarchs, but unfortunately their struggles at protecting the crown are also marginalized to a few letters and telegrams.
One notable exception is the believable sadness that Akana portrays as the deposed queen.
More notably absent are Princess Ka‘iulani’s struggles with Hawai‘i at the turn of the century. We know she feels her people’s “wailing in her heart” simply because she says so; but it is difficult to follow her progression from a hopeful and privileged princess of a harmonious Hawai‘i under the vision of King Kalakaua to a de facto stateswoman during troubled times.
Perhaps this is because the audience isn’t given a glance into Ka‘iulani’s inner thoughts and struggles beyond flashbacks to her mother and montages of her giggling with her schoolmate (Merchant) and English beau Clive Davies (Shaun Evans).
The action of the movie begins with preparations for the celebration of the electric lighting of ‘Iolani Palace. Throughout the setup the movie cuts to brief dialogues between characters that should demonstrate the current political situation.
Unfortunately, again, these dialogues are too brief, contrived and trite, and lack any clear explanation of the players and politics of Hawai‘i. Instead, the movie spends its screen time on long shots of a wide-eyed Ka‘iulani throwing the switch to light Honolulu.
The lighting ceremony is cut short by a coup attempt led by Lauren Thurston (Barry Pepper) and because of the ensuing danger Ka‘iulani is taken to England to the home of Davies, where she will be safe.
Here a begrudging romance blossoms between Ka‘iulani and Davies, while Ka‘iulani is kept unaware of the political upheaval in Hawai‘i. The storyline has much potential for dramatic self-discovery and thematic relations between both loving and being threatened by the approach of the Western world on Hawai‘i. But, again disappointingly, these or any other potential myriad themes do not develop and instead Ka‘iulani seems to vacillate between love and anger with no real progression or inner conflict between the two.
If there are kudos to be had, the film does accurately replicate turn-of-the-century Hawai‘i in both garb and location.
From the palace to the calabashes of poi set on the table, the time in Hawai‘i looks the part.
Obviously, however, this is not what the story of Hawai‘i is all about.
