What becomes of the broken hearted?

Reviewed by Russell Baillie ***

Cast: Temuera Morrison, Clint Eruera, Nancy Brunning

Director: Ian Mune

Rating: R16

Its title comes as a question - and its arrival on our cinema screens generates so many others. The most obvious, of course, is the inevitable "How does it compare to its predecessor, Once Were Warriors?"

That was a film which weaved - some might say punched - its way into our cultural fabric and language after becoming the New Zealand movie that more New Zealanders have seen than any other.

Because of this, the question in many minds might be whether or not we'd want to go another round with Jake Heke. Does a film character like that deserve a celluloid second chance, an opportunity for redemption, a learning experience?

And concerns, too, about how writer Alan Duff might translate his second Heke novel into a script. Especially after he was bumped from the screenplay job on the first film and was slighted to the point of litigation over what he saw as the lack of credit given to him for Warriors' creation and its success.

Enough questions. Now some attempt at answers.
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? might be termed a worthy successor to Warriors, but it's not without its flaws and disappointments.

Not among them, though, are the performances of the principals. Morrison as an older - but not necessarily wiser - Jake the Muss, isn't quite the brute of Warriors. His diminished circumstances have seemingly translated to a diminished stature and vulnerability.

But he's hardly anger-management material yet - the opening scene coming with a familiar thwack of Jake's fists on flesh.

A real stand-out, however, is Nancy Brunning. As gang moll Tania she exudes a quiet, soul-bruised and angry power as she plots with Jake's son Sonny (Clint Eruera) to avenge the death of his brother, and her lover, Nig (Julian Arahanga), who was set up during a gang battle. Watch, too, for Rawiri Paratene's gripping supporting turn as ex-con gang lieutenant Mulla.

But there are some uneven performances among what is a crowded ensemble. And a few plot holes.

The narrative momentum muddles and slows midway when the parallel strands of the revenge plot and Jake's redemption fight for attention. And in the thick of the dialogue you can sometimes hear Duff shouting, "There's a lesson in here for all of us."

Stylistically, it jars between suburban naturalism and the Mad Max-gone-Otara cues it's taken from Warriors. And where the first film had a big-screen scope and a feel that it was set in a not-too-distant future, this seems like it happened yesterday. The thought does occur that it might play better on television.

The sequence which has Jake out pig-hunting with some new mates seems to have come from another, more jolly film. (And while we're being picky, for a man living in abject squalor, Jake always seems to wear the same nicely ironed shirt.)

But what Broken Hearted lacks in atmosphere and cohesiveness it makes up for in some electric performances and scenes which etch themselves on the brain in the same way that Warriors did.

In short, it does enough to be not only a worthy but a worthwhile sequel. But it falls well short of being an equal.