Pike River: Movie Review

Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Robyn Malcolm, Errol Shand, Lucy Lawless, Ben Porter, John Leigh, Madeleine McCarthy, Hamish McEwen
Director: Rob Sarkies 

Director Rob Sarkies has a tough job with the Pike River film and for non-New Zealand audiences,it's a tough sell.

Essentially, how do you tell a tale that's spanned 15 years and still has no real resolution? For the families of 29 miners, whose lives were lost when a series of explosions ripped through the Pike River mine on New Zealand's west coast in November 2010, the battle for justice continues.

Focusing mainly on the fight and initially forced friendship between Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse (Lynskey and Malcolm, both uniformly excellent throughout), the narrative weaves its way from the very first day in 2010 to later on. But by employing time jumps and a few narrative leaps, Pike River at times requires much from its audience who will be expecting a resolution as usual disaster movies employ.

But herein lies the rub for Pike River - that stymied the storytelling in parts and it becomes a film that celebrates the smaller moments of victory rather than the cathartic highs of a traditional tale.

Despite some beautifully shot cutaway of mist hanging above the clouds and sensitive handling of the explosion itself,the movie often relies on assumed knowledge of the situation rather than the narrative threads to pull it together.

The first time Anna and Sonya meet, they're frosty to each other, to the point of openly hostile. Then seconds later, they're the best of mates without anything other than a brief scene between. It's a trick employed throughout and what it does is push the audience to empathy by force, rather than leading through story.

But as mentioned, Pike River was never a story that had or has closure, something that is its tragic power. And while Lynskey and Malcolm excel in their empathetic and powerful performances, the film's journey feels staccato and stuttered at times.

Those involved would want you to take the message of the injustice done to their families, an admittedly honourable one to take away.

Yet despite such a powerful takeaway and with only a handful of scenes getting to the humanity and bond people forge in unwanted tragedy, what emerges from the Pike River movie is a more muted success that feels like it's best suited to Kiwi audiences, rather than its injustices and abuse of power being more accessible to a global audience.