Princess Kaiulani

Calling it a mish-mash of history and of filmmaking is about the kindest thing that can be said about "Princess Kaiulani," a new film that pretends to relate a story of Hawaiian history, but which provides little more than some nice travelogue shots of Hawaiian scenery and an opportunity for Q'orianka Kilcher to portray another native.

Fresh from her role as Pocahontas in "The New World," the 20-year-old Kilcher wears some fancy 19th-century gowns, impresses President Grover Cleveland and Sanford Dole and spurns a wealthy and devoted English suitor because she is, after all, a princess. There really was a Princess Ka'iulani, whose full name was Victoria Ka'iulani Kalaninuiahhilapalapa Kawekiu Lunalilo Cleghorn. Her name was spelled with an apostrophe, unlike the movie or the Waikiki Beach hotel, which probably was named for her. Her mother was the queen of the islands in the second half of the 19th century, as the United States, in an expansionist mode, was increasing its empire.

Dole (Will Patton) and Lorrin A. Thurston (Barry Pepper), born in Hawaii of American parents, were instrumental in American annexation, primarily so that their land holdings could increase in value.

The princess, born in 1875, was 14 when she was spirited off the islands and sent to England for schooling and to be out of the way when American sailors and soldiers invaded the island in 1893. But writer-director Marc Forby, who should know better because his wife grew up in Hawaii, is not about to allow the facts to interfere with what he thinks is a good story. So he invents Clive Davies (Shaun Evans), who gets all sheeps-eyed about the princess who appears to be 18 or 20. Meanwhile, the rag-tag army of natives was no match for American soldiers and sailors, and annexation was a done deal before she returned.

Mixing fact and fiction the way Forby does is unfair to the truth and as a story. In truth, however, the real Princess Ka'iulani, though she did make a plea to an unhearing Congress, was strictly a tangential figure in the machinations of the annexation. And Kilcher lacks the maturity and the talent to do much more than look good in the gowns.

Opens today at the Plaza Frontenac

-Joe

Comments

[Kim]

Aloha. I was searching for the turth about the Princess when I ran saw your blog. Princess Ka'iulani's mother was not Queen of Hawai'i. Princess Ka'iulani's name is spelled with an okina and not an apostrophe. Mahalo.