Tinā

 This review may contain spoilers!

Tinā follows Mareta Percival, a choir teacher who loses her daughter in the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. Jumping forward three years, Mareta has fallen on tougher times and inadvertently finds herself confronted with a new career opportunity: teaching at a private school. Through her compassion and dedication to the students, a choir is formed that helps heal those involved with it.

I'm so used to a very detached quality when I sit back and watch a movie, a movie often has to invite me into the world it is crafting or impress me with a complete escape from reality. The thing about Tinā is that it really sits so close to home, this is a story set not only in my very country but in my home city. It becomes very easy to form bonds with aspects of it, while measuring it up against tremendous expectations elsewhere. This is a drama that is strongly motivated to tell an inspirational narrative, something that will leave you smiling despite the tears when the credits roll. I think the character of Mareta was a wonderful point of inspiration, she is strongly motivated by a duty of care that uplifts her students and in doing so, allows them to share in her passion. She becomes this force of change, not only in coaching choir, but in setting an example for life that improved the lives of her students in turn. Mareta is also faced with incredible tragedy throughout this film, her story starts by forever being altered by tragedy. Watching her endure while carrying that tragedy is something quite special. She doesn't just lose the grief, she learns to be strong alongside the grief. An element of this tragedy stems from the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, and despite some personal mixed feelings I have about fictionalising a death in the collapse of the CTV building, I felt this film really captured the emotion held by the city from this event in a way no other fictional content has achieved. The film also does a great job at analysing Christchurch private schools, not holding back from saying they are governed by success over wellbeing or a duty of care. I really loved seeing traditional private school values challenged without ever tarring the students themselves as being overtly problematic. The film does a good job of remembering these are teenagers, still shaping their identities and capable of growth. I saw so much of my city in Tinā and I was very proud of what Miki Magasiva accomplished.

There is a very real sense of beauty to this film. You would struggle to see a scene in which there isn't a piece of artistic camerawork, or in which something is beautifully framed. Even in that bare wooden choir room you have these gorgeous ensemble shots of rehearsal, the breathing scene is a particular triumph. Music is at the core of this film and it stands as one of the greatest strengths. Speaking to the elements that were more 'soundtrack', the choir recordings are majestic, these incredible tracks that draw strong emotion from the audience. The score for this movie holds great beauty too, but it often denotes the struggle Mareta and other characters are wrestling with beneath the surface.

Dalip Sondhi, who played Alan Hubbard, was fascinating as the gentle mannered but ill-advised principal on the cusp of retirement; I enjoyed Sondhi developing his role to learn what Mareta's teachings meant to his students. Nicole Whippy, who played Rona, is a force to be reckoned with in this; Whippy's fierce care for Mareta that often brought the two to conflict as well was a beautiful portrayal of genuine friendship. Jamie Irvine, who played Peter Wadsworth, was fantastic as the primary antagonist; he had a cruel bend towards difference in his school that I felt was an interesting force to see Mareta oppose. Zac O'Meagher, who played Anthony Bull, presents a young man forced to give everything to the reputation of his school; seeing his love for the choir and rejection of harmful expectations was a very worthy subplot.

However, the best performance came from Anapela Polataivao, who played Mareta. This was a career high character performance from Polataivao, a role that she could really inhabit and make her own. When first we meet Mareta Percival, she seems a little restrained and I wondered how this role was going to occupy my attention for two hours. Then Polataivao showcased how deeply she could show grief, that raw scene in which she weeps floored me. Across this movie, Mareta is a woman deeply depressed, her world has been obliterated. Polataivao steadily develops her character on a new path, where she demonstrates care for a new group of students and imparts the passion she has for choir to them. I also really loved how good Polataivao's comedic timing and delivery were, the film really was funniest when she had a funny line or moment. Polataivao finds Mareta a broken woman and takes her on a journey of healing, one in which she uplifts others. This might be a character performance leading a film but it really is such a well-realised one, in no small part due to Polataivao.

Tinā is a movie that is pretty comfortable sitting in the realm of predictability, and that's not the end of the world. You start watching Tinā and it's pretty reasonable to expect that going back to teaching will heal Mareta and that she will in turn raise her students up. Throw in a couple of easy antagonistic private school deputy principal/board members and this film does come off as a bit safe at times. I felt it still performed extremely well, but it isn't really too much more than what it says on the box. I also found the subplot of Mareta investing so much in a student due to the loss of her daughter to be a bit strange. It felt like it made that relationship more complex and emotionally charged than it had any business being. When the film tries to be funny it really struggles to draw forth a laugh from the audience, sometimes the movie needed to recognise that its strength sat with drama. One major nitpick I had was the city really looks nothing like it did in 2014, we still looked quite broken even then. That's the issue of being a local watching, I guess.

This film is one of my all-time favourites from this year, but it does have some of the worst editing I have seen, with abrupt cuts or transitions that can be jarring at times. Poor linear editing also caused continuity to break in some moments, which was a glaring fault and the one I struggled to look past.

Antonia Robinson, who played Sophie, is a young performer that this film probably showed a bit too much faith in; Robinson gives a very generic portrayal of teen angst and mental health struggle. Beulah Koale, who played Sio, was a character whose bond with Polataivao just didn't really feel that engaging; Koale's moments of comedy also fell extremely flat for me. Matthew Chamberlain, who played Father McAfee, was an odd side character to get the screen time that he did; was there something so impressive in watching a Palagi priest speak Samoan in such a performative way?

A piece of cinema from home that will stand apart all year long. I would give Tinā an 8.5/10.