'Princess Kaiulani' sways from doomed love story to Hawaiian politics

The ambitious historical epic "Hawaii" was the top-grossing movie of 1966. But the 1970 sequel, "The Hawaiians," was an expensive disaster, and it's taken four decades for another film to dramatize Hawaii's pre-statehood history.

Unfortunately, "Princess Kaiulani," though it's well cast and makes sometimes startlingly poetic use of the scenery, isn't a major improvement on "The Hawaiians."

The script tries to make sense of the politics of the period, allowing for a showy cameo appearance by President Grover Cleveland (played by Peter Banks), but the filmmakers are clearly more interested in dramatizing a doomed love story.

Based on the brief life of an exiled Hawaiian princess who came of age in Victorian England, "Princess Kaiulani" works mostly as a star vehicle for Q'orianka Kilcher, a gifted, seldom-used German- Peruvian actress who has had some experience with these kinds of roles.

Five years ago, she played Pocahontas in "The New World," Terrence Malick's gorgeous 2005 film about the Jamestown settlement in the early 17th century. She was effectively cast opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale.

This time Kilcher's would-be husband, Clive Davies, is played by the young British actor Shaun Evans.

While there's a mischievous, playful quality to their scenes together, the relationship is complicated by Davies' sexist condescension toward Kaiulani. This seems entirely believable in context. So does her inability to see, at first, that he's manipulating her.

But the love story becomes something of a sideshow. The character with power here is the Hawaiian queen, Liliu'okalani (Leo Anderson Akana), who is forced to deal with American colonization and attempts at annexation. Barry Pepper and Will Patton, representing the U.S., can do only so much with their schematic roles.

The director, Marc Forby, fails to bring a sense of urgency to the battle scenes or the political debates. For all its strong points, the picture sometimes plays like the condensation of a miniseries.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com