A really fine film about a young girl challenging the patriarchal traditions handed down from generation to generation among her New Zealander people.
Keisha Castle-Hughes gives an astonishingly mature performance as the young girl and won a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her work, the youngest person ever to be nominated in the lead category. The film is sweet and heartwarming without being sticky or maudlin, and it's filled with local color about a culture I know very little about.
Castle-Hughes' tour de force scene is a monologue to her father delivered during a school pageant. I defy any viewer to hold back the tears.
Grade: A
Keisha Castle-Hughes gives an astonishingly mature performance as the young girl and won a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her work, the youngest person ever to be nominated in the lead category. The film is sweet and heartwarming without being sticky or maudlin, and it's filled with local color about a culture I know very little about.
Castle-Hughes' tour de force scene is a monologue to her father delivered during a school pageant. I defy any viewer to hold back the tears.
Grade: A