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Sweet family-based action-comedy in lackadaisical cuzzie-bro style.
Some people feel inherently drawn to the cultures of Japan, some to the wonderous accent France, others long for African stylings. Myself, I always go weak at the knees for a strong New Zealand or Islander accent. There is something that always feels so at ease, so relaxed, so perfectly right with the world underneath those intonations. So clearly this is a film for me.
The story follows two brothers who leave Samoa for the riches of picking Kiwi fruit in New Zealand - seasonal work to make a mint and help their families back home. There's Alama, the dreamer who has ideas to make things better, and Popo the wilder brother. And it's all going well, well like silly, but well. They make their money and they're ready to head home. Then Popo does a runner with all the cash. Alama can't bear to return home to their overbearing and somewhat violent father empty handed, and thus begins a long hunt for the missing Popo.
Here they enlist the help of expat (?) Samoan "private investigator" Bob... at this point the film becomes a range of sketch-comedy type set ups about the bumbling investigator. They catch Popo and he escapes so many times I lost count, in a romp around NZ.
It really takes it's time and relishes in what it's doing, so it could feel quite slow and even boring to some. It's also dual language, in both English and Samoan. And there are some awesome creative things done with subtitling when Bob is working on brushing up on Samoan... subtitling the correct pronunciation and his wonky attempts in different fonts.
They use a traditional Polynesian form of martial arts, and it's frequently practiced and features in a few of the big show down fights that eventuate. There's also a quite epic man-sing-off. But there is a lot of comedy here, including some scenes that you feel just unfolded on the fly when they ran into certain people on the street. It has that vibe of everyone in NZ pitching in a little bit to help make it happen.
The ending is sweet and happy, and about finding satisfaction in the life you have.
One of these stars is for accents alone, but it really is well filmed given all the budgetary limitations they seem to have had.
J* gives it 4 stars.
PS: Bonus content - Tofiga Fepulea'i (who plays PI Bob) interviewing Jason Momoa about Aquaman.
Pacific-Formal Attire - what a dress code!
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