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How others will see it. This much-ballyhooed Indie film has plenty to offer most viewers. There's violence, sex, gangs, and numerous family arguments. It's not really an enjoyable movie, but it has a "Salt of the Earth" quality that some critics can't resist.
How I felt about it. Anthropologists say you should study, rather than judge, a different culture than your own. Still, it's hard to find nice things to say about the society depicted in this movie. The people, apparently descended from slaves, value bodybuilding, tattoos, drinking, laying about, and beating up anyone they disagree with.
Hope exists, however, from the mother's side of the family. She is the descendant of aborigines who "once were warriors." These people believe that makes them better than those with slave ancestry, although they all look alike to me.
Such racial statements must be put into context. This is only a movie, and only one movie. The people who actually live in New Zealand slums may have little or no resemblance to those depicted in the present movie. At least, for their sakes, I hope so.
Since we are discussing fictional characters rather than accurate representatives of New Zealanders, we can criticize them all we want. We can criticize the father for spending his time and money drinking instead of looking for a job, and can criticize him for beating up a man for simply putting money into a jukebox. And we can roll our eyes at this brutal action receiving cheers rather than gasps from onlookers.
We can criticize the mother for not picking up and leaving after her husband assaults her. We can criticize the older son for waiting to join a gang that beats up initiates, and disfigures their faces and bodies with tattoos. Do members of this gang do anything else other than lay about and drive clunker cars? Gee, I hope I'm not being too judgmental.
Within this sea of violence, resignation, and dissipation, walks thirteen year old hottie Grace, the good girl who tries to help her pathetic family. But, inevitably, she's pulled into the cesspool in which they live. The mother finally gets out, which allegedly makes her a heroine. The trouble is, it's seventeen years too late.