Whale Rider

[ceebeegee]

I rented the DVD of the movie Whale Rider on Friday. Beautiful, beautiful movie. Literally and figuratively, it sings. The little girl, Keisha Castle-Hughes (who earned herself a nomination for Best Actress at 13, the youngest such nominee in Oscar history) is simply wonderful. Duncan, I think Clair would especially like this movie--it's not just a girl power movie, it's much more than that, but I think Clair would really respond to this girl. I loved the look into Maori culture--I know a teeny bit about it but the movie really shows a culture in transition. The scenes with the other boys were just great--the one who played Pai's friend/rival was heart-breaking. And the whales, the beautiful sad whales--I wept when they stranded themselves, especially when Pai was saying how she'd called them, and now they didn't want to live, they saw no reason to live. The villagers were trying to save the whales, spraying them with water and covering them with wet blanket and towels. Incredibly sad.

And on a much more shallow note, the guy who played Pai's father was HOT.