Somewhat spoilery, I'd say you should read anyway) The River Queen is an interesting, if a bit underwhelming experience. Throughout the whole movie, at least I for one, never felt invested in journey, and it seems that this is the main struggle of the movie – engaging the audience.The movie tells the story of Sarah, an Irish medic in the English army on New Zealand. Mothering a half-caste with a native Maori, a young man who quickly goes on to die of the fever, Sarah raises their boy in the colonized ways. One day, however, the boy, which never gets any other name than "Boy", is taken by one of the more militarized tribes of Maori, as the tension between foreign settlers and natives escalates to war. Sarah sets out on a journey to find her son again, and while it is a decent premise for a plot, as mentioned the movie struggles telling the story in an interesting way.Much to my begrudging side, the director is guilty in heavy use of shaky-cams, creative zooming and hasty editing. While maintaining a sense of, what, "realism", shaky-cams will never be engaging in my book, and I can't help to wonder why someone would even consider having a drunken cameraman all throughout the film. In River Queen, the method isn't used to the irritating degree, it isn't as dizzying as how the Hunger Games used it, but still I would definitely enjoyed the movie more had they decided to shoot it in a normal way.If there is one thing the movie does get right it is scenery, music and effects, with these three factors done almost flawlessly. New Zealand no doubt has an amazing nature and wildlife, and the movie succeeds in portraying the rivers and forests as a last frontier between the European civilization and the native tribes. The music is a mix of native Maori and 1860s European, and when you're not assaulted by the wind blowing calmly through the grass, whistling just because it's the wind, man, it sets the atmosphere of colonization in the 1860s. The effects are, when not blurred out by a drunken cameraman and creative editing, good at portraying both the every-day life and nature, and the warzones and violence. There's little CGI, and since I'll never get my stop-motion robots from the eighties back, I would say it's refreshing to see a movie that is a little bit real and authentic.More mediocre, if not disappointing, is the acting, with the main actress of Samantha Morton coming across as quite bland and uninteresting, with acting rather dependent on the different situations. As often as I found myself engaged in her journey, I also found myself quite fed-up with her role and the way she played it. Rather mediocre than bad, I guess it's unfair to blame the actress for the character, the writing could have been better. Some dialogues and scenes of long-lost-reunions (honestly, don't say you didn't see it coming, OOPS I'VE SAID TO MUCH) does not prove to be as satisfying and tearjerkery as they could have been. It's a shame, because Irish accents really are smashing, and there are times when Sarah isn't that bad a character. Better, if also quite bland, are the other main roles of Rawiri Pene as Boy, Kiefer Sutherland as Private Doyle, Cliff Curtis as Wiremu and Temuera Morrison as Te Kai Po. All of these are men of different meaning to Sarah's life and journey, and with the exception of a mediocre romance with a certain native, and the rather good performance of a certain chief, the actors are okay.If there is one thing I would say about this movie though, it is that the war between the Maori and the Europeans is portrayed in a very good manner. It might just be me fancying grey areas at the moment, but I found some sub-plots coming out of the seemingly never-ending conflict way more interesting than the actual plot. With certain soldiers going fighting for such a long time they're not even sure what they're fighting for anymore, the movie gives an interesting and emotional peak into what these soldiers are going through. As families also were split up by this war, with brothers fighting brothers, the conflict comes across as more engaging and thought-provoking. The movie clearly stands a neutral ground, showing the thoughts of both sides, and showing both sides committing the atrocities of war, and at least I found this viewpoint interesting. (If a tad moralistic, but hey) I guess I would recommend it to you if you're interested in the time period, as the movie is quite good at portraying the era. However, if you're looking for a deep and emotional story of family, love and strong heroines, you would probably find it somewhat, well, mediocre, at least when it comes to engagement. By all means, watch it on a Sunday afternoon if there's nothing else to do, you would most likely find it a bit interesting, but if you're looking for something deeper, then you should look somewhere else. I'd say Aliens would be a good choice, if not just for the reason that it is a badass movie I would rather watch than this. But now I'm acting unfair.Well bugger that, a person should be allowed to act unfair sometimes, elsewise I we would all be reduced to objective muck.

A good example of reversed, politically correct racism where white men are presented as senseless brutes who're only there to be massacred and their aboriginal adversaries as noble heroes, superior both in their appearance and abilities. Apart from making the story overally dull, this also prevents the neutral viewer to identify himself with one or the other side - it's just too simplifying. The repetitive score is incredibly annoying (as is the voice-over), the characters lack any depth and the viewer is soon lost between questions like "who is this character" and "what the hell is that supposed to mean". Photography is wonderful, though, and on the whole there's a lot of atmosphere to it but nice shots of misty landscapes alone don't save this movie. The DVD box uses Kiefer Sutherland as an eye-catcher. In fact, his character could have been played by anyone else because it's basically just an empty shell (like most non-Maori characters), and disappears anyway around halfway the film. But if you are eager to see Jack Bauer in a kilt, that's your kind of movie...

The anticipation of seeing Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis AND Keifer Sutherland all in the one movie had me salivating! However while I wouldn't say I was exactly disappointed with the movie I did feel that so much more could have been explored. I was left with some things unanswered. Why did Sarahs Dad go away? Why did Sarah pop on a wedding dress (this after apparently everything had been destroyed)?prepare to marry Doyle, on his deathbed, then have an intimate time with Wiremu? I felt that some aspects of the movie simply did not add up and I was unconvinced by the acting talents of Samantha Morton,she was neither tough chick or helpless femme and I couldn't embrace her character at all.I guess for me thats just an important aspect of any movie. As a female I want to identify with the female, especially if she is the lead character. On the positive side the Maori fight scenes were raw, real and raunchy (well Temuera had a great time!)but again I was not totally convinced. Look, it was a good movie, easy to watch,and entertaining in its own way. Be warned though if you are looking for a tight storyline,deep sincere acting and mind blowing thrills this is not for you. Having lived in NZ for 12 years I also had some frustration that I didn't see more of the great country. The scenery, while beautiful was also limited,same lake scene over and over, although maybe Vincent Ward was hoping to steer away from the breathtaking scenes a la'Lord of The Rings',if this was the case then Vincent succeeded. With the line up offered maybe I just expected too much. At the end of the day it was not a bad movie it just lacked that something special.

Boy did I enjoy River Queen. The scenery was stunning, the acting superb, the story brilliant, and the music was a hauntingly beautiful match to an incredible film. I always thought it would be great if a film was set during the Maori wars that was similar to Michael Mann's "The Last of the Mohicans". Well this it, with shades of Joffe's "The Mission" to boot.River Queen grabs you and draws you into a world that you only learned about in history books. It does not take sides but portrays the beautiful and the ugly in both sides to the conflict. The chemistry between the main actors is powerful and moving and keeps the people of the story to the fore, stopping them from being engulfed by the powerful images of the war.I always thought it would take our own Peter Jackson (should be Sir Peter) to make a film of this quality in New Zealand and about New Zealand. But I take my hat off to Vincent Ward. River Queen demonstrates that there is an amazing depth of movie making talent in this small country that time and again punches way above it's weight.