tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post8634601196412152023..comments2024-03-27T21:42:56.131-05:00Comments on 1001plus: Dolphins are for WussesSJHoneywellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-83456005744833233232015-01-09T21:44:46.138-06:002015-01-09T21:44:46.138-06:00The bike riding scene is what I had in mind as one...The bike riding scene is what I had in mind as one of the great moments of Koro. While he's absolutely the main foil in the film, he's never really a villain, and that's important. We need to understand him and by at least partially sympathetic to him to make the film work. <br /><br />I like Cliff Curtis as an actor (except for <i>The Last Airbender</i>, which sucks all around. He's one of the bright spots (no pun intended) in <i>Sunshine</i>, and I like him in <i>Three Kings</i> as well.<br /><br />And yes, that moment with the grandmother is perfect. There's so much emotion tied up in that phrase and in how she says it. SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-90363201572517293962015-01-09T08:59:37.641-06:002015-01-09T08:59:37.641-06:00"He has that fine line to walk between love f..."He has that fine line to walk between love for his granddaughter and frustration at what he feels he's lost. With a less subtle performance, he'd be easy to hate. Instead, he's easy to understand, and that's precisely what's needed for the story to be as sympathetic on all sides."<br /><br />I completely agree. It would have been easy to play it as a generic misogynist asshole whose only two dimensional purpose is to oppose Paikea. A lot of films would have done this.<br /><br />I think the early scene of he and Paikea riding on a bike together just quietly shows the love the two have for each other. The second time I watched the film I noticed that during this scene she was hanging onto the whale tooth that was hanging around his neck.<br /><br />I'm glad you got to see this before Once Were Warriors. Other than being about Maori people the two films could not be more different. And Cliff Curtis is in both, in wildly different roles. In fact, Once Were Warriors is the first film I ever saw him in. In Whale Rider he could have been an unsympathetic character, too, but he's not because we can see how much the tragedy of his wife and child dying have affected him - even to the point of having to leave behind his entire people and his heritage because it too painfully reminds him of what he lost. Paikea is able to heal him, too.<br /><br />And just to gush a little more about the performances, perhaps my favorite line delivery in the entire film comes from the grandmother. When she hands the grandfather the tooth and he asks who retrieved it, she replies "What do you mean 'who'?" The look on her face and tone of her voice are killer.<br /><br />I mentioned the speech for her grandfather in my first comment. I forgot to mention that what is in the film was the first and only take. When Castle-Hughes got done they didn't even bother to shoot it again because they knew she had played it perfectly.Chip Laryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-29937693369031933852015-01-09T08:27:02.465-06:002015-01-09T08:27:02.465-06:00I agree completely on Rawiri Paratene. Castle-Hugh...I agree completely on Rawiri Paratene. Castle-Hughes is central to the film working as well as it does, but it also won't work if he doesn't give the performance he does. He has that fine line to walk between love for his granddaughter and frustration at what he feels he's lost. With a less subtle performance, he'd be easy to hate. Instead, he's easy to understand, and that's precisely what's needed for the story to be as sympathetic on all sides.<br /><br />I think one of the problems Castle-Hughes has had with her career is that people see <i>Whale Rider</i> and see her as a child, which she no longer is. She's still young, though. She's got plenty of time for a great career.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-14488063877574896242015-01-09T06:43:39.980-06:002015-01-09T06:43:39.980-06:00I completely agree on Castle-Hughes' performan...I completely agree on Castle-Hughes' performance, At the time she became, by far, the youngest female ever nominated for a Best Actress award. If you still have the DVD watch her audition scene with Cliff Curtis in the extras. She gets him crying in her damn audition - and she had never even so much as acted in a school play before this film. <br /><br />I felt the actor who played her grandfather was also deserving of a nomination.<br /><br />I love just about everything about this movie. I've watched it four times and the speech for her grandfather has gotten me every time.<br /><br />I agree that this is a great family film, but the MPAA does not agree. They gave it a PG-13 rating. It's for a drug reference. As I said, I've seen it four times and the closest thing I've come to seeing a drug reference is that her uncle who helps her with her staff work is maybe intended to be a stoner. There might be a pot pipe on a cord around his neck.<br /><br />I thought Castle-Hughes would have a great career ahead of her, and she's young enough that she still might, but Hollywood cast her out after she became pregnant at 16 while she was supposed to be on press junkets promoting her new film where she plays Mary, mother of Jesus - who is also a pregnant teen, but apparently since she was pregnant with Jesus that's okay. She was blamed for the failure of the movie and basically blacklisted by the studio. She's continued to work now and then, but in much smaller pictures.Chip Laryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com