River Queen

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10/10/2015 Truely heart-breaking. That they would decide to make a historical epic set in my tiny home town, but that it would be so unwatchably bad that no one talked about it. See more 08/14/2013 (***): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] An interesting film. See more 04/19/2013 Horrible, horrible. This was so bad I didn't bother to watch it all. Steven Rea and Kiefer Sutherland- what were you thinking??? See more 03/31/2013 While it boasts some entertaining set pieces, River Queen ultimately falls back on bad writing, overly melodramatic moments and subpar performances. See more 12/30/2012 I wonder if the visual references to "The Piano" were intentional. A lonely woman, a beach, New Zealand, a child and the original people (Maori) in the center of the movie. This is not Piano, however. The movie begins interestingly, but soon shows lack of coherence. We jump almost a decade all of a sudden (why?) and it is never explained why Samantha Morton's character really started to look for her son after waiting so long (she knew who the tattoo maker was and how to start looking). It takes a while for the story to start get interesting, and then it gets a bit boring, to become more intense again near the end of the movie. Tension is not there, action is not there, except until the end of the movie. Violence of war aside, there isn't really any other story to this movie - except the reunification of a child and his mother in the midst of a war. As long as one sees this movie as a description of a woman's seach for her son, set in a certain short moment in the world history in a certain island, one can see a purpose in the film. The movie doesn't really give any view of the plight of the original New Zealanders. The violence of the spreading of western culture is shown well, when one sees the horrific moment when the army commander watches as his soldier keeps a knife on a child's throat. I might argue about how proper that is, by the way, to show in a movie. I know there are far worse things actually happening, but still it was quite awful to witness. I suppose one purpose of the movie may have been to introduce some of the Maori culture to the viewer. Unfortunately this is not very succesful. We only see war and fighting, stabbing and shooting. Failure on that account doesn't mean the film would be a failure altogether. The Maori characters, also unfortunately, remain a bit loose or shallow. There are not a lot of mainstream movies produced in the west to show Maori culture. Also a too bad is Kiefer Sutherland's character, whom he plays really well but who doesn't really say anything and nothing comes of his role. The movie has some violent moments (people killed, fingers cut off), threatening children with weapons and some obscene language. The natural beauty of New Zealand alone does not save this film from becoming slightly tedious. The Maori defending their right to live, yet as fearless fighters they show no mercy in their war against colonists. Violence. I got a feeling the movie tries to say a lot, but remains at a loss for words when its supposed to open its mouth and speak. It is a fearsome world, terrible for both western and Maori, but what can one gather from this movie? The weaknesses already mentioned, the movie's strenght is in that its sincere and quite rare of its kind. I was left with a feeling that it would have been interesting to see more of the Maori and New Zealand. See more ma'ark t 06/26/2012 A period drama set during the New Zealand Wars. A dis-jointed story line with cinematography that does nothing to hold the viewer's interest and is at times confusing. Aspects of Titokowaru's campaign seem to be the inspiration but why bother when the historically accurate story would have been far more interesting? Some great battle scenes/scenery and pretty decent acting can not save this film from being way under it's potential. A wasted opportunity to showcase New Zealand's rich history to both New Zealander's and the world. See more Read all reviews

River Queen

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