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Director: Lee Tamahori
Writers: Shane Danielsen, Lee Tamahori, Michael Bennett
Stars: Guy Pearce, Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne, Antonio Te Maioha
The Convert 2024 Full Review:
In his latest movie “The Convert,” director and co-writer Lee Tamahori returns home to New Zealand for a look at a fraught chapter in the country’s history. Bringing his action movie bona fides from the James Bond entry "Die Another Day" and "xXx: State of the Union," Tamahori hews intense dramatic moments over battlefields and tense conversations as two factions of indigenous Māori wrestle for control while British colonists set up one of their first claims on the nation. Our main character enters these most turbulent times advocating for peace and finds few listeners. This is not an uncommon chapter in history, but the way Tamahori and his cast and crew approach the topic is fascinating, even if sometimes a little conflicted.
In 1830, Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce) lands in New Zealand. After years in the military, he’s a troubled man who wants to get away from England as much as possible and finds passage to the other side of the world as a lay preacher. However, our adventurer does not find peace. Instead, he finds a community in tumult as two Māori chiefs, Maianui (Antonio Te Maioha) and Akatarewa (Lawrence Makoare), fight among themselves for control of the region, traders like Kedgley (Dean O'Gorman) supply muskets and bullets to both combatants and the British colonists in the town of Epworth ostracize anyone not British and Protestant. They even go so far as to withhold medical supplies from a wounded Māori woman, Rangimai (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne), whom Thomas rescued from an ambush. As tensions mount, Thomas finds allies with Rangimai and a widow named Charlotte (Jacqueline McKenzie), even as war seems all but inevitable.
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