Pike River, directed by Robert Sarkies, releases Thursday, October 30.
There will be few New Zealanders who don’t remember the coal mining tragedy that cost the lives of 29 men in November, 2010. There will be few who don’t remember the false hope that came with the news from Greymouth, that the men might be able to be rescued just as miners in Chile had a few months before and miners in Tasmania a few years earlier. But it wasn’t to be, and Pike River, a powerful dramatisation of the disaster and its aftermath, runs on dashed hopes.
What may have dissipated from public memory in the years since, though, is the ongoing struggle of many families still agitating for resolution – be it retrieving their loved ones’ remains, bringing to justice the companies involved, or getting successive governments to keep their promises.
Director Robert Sarkies goes to great lengths to honour the victims and their families in his quietly compelling film focused on two women fighting for justice. He brings to it the restraint and authentic touch he delivered in Out of the Blue, his superb 2006 drama about the Aramoana massacre.
Fiona Samuel’s painstakingly accurate screenplay takes us from the day before the mine explosion – in which Anna Osborne (Melanie Lynskey) tries to coax exhausted husband Milton (John Leigh) to take the day off (a heart-heavy bit of foreshadowing) – through to the aftermath of the tragedy. At a meeting of affected families, Anna meets grieving mother Sonya Rockhouse (Robyn Malcolm), who had two sons in the mine, one of whom survived. Eventually, they strike up a friendship which will power them through those dashed hopes.
Lynskey and Malcolm are outstanding, portraying their feisty, swearing heroines as formidable and endearing. We are used to seeing Malcolm play tough, so it’s a neat twist that her Sonya goes rabbit-in-headlights when called on for public speaking. By comparison, Lynskey’s dulcet tones belie Anna’s fire-in-the-belly to see someone take responsibility for Milt’s death and the return of his body.
The makers’ commitment to veracity is evident from the beginning. Even the 31 mostly nonspeaking extras who play the miners were designated the specific man they were to represent on screen. Technically, the film is excellent – it’s a long journey to cover in just two hours, and the rollercoaster from devastation through court cases and Royal Commissions and beyond is fully engaging.
Sarkies largely eschews the sensationalist elements used in true-story tellings – the few “ta-dah” moments are low key, as in Lucy Lawless’s appearance as trade unionist Helen Kelly, who helped push for criminal charges against the mine company’s directors. Rather than playing it as an Erin Brockovich drama, Pike River feels more like an honouring, a putting to rights. Daniel Cleary’s spot-on portrayal of John Key gets laughs but those lines were the former PM’s actual words. As has been already noted, Jacinda Ardern has a cameo as her 2017 self, newly appointed as Labour leader and meeting Rockhouse and Osborne.
The former prime minister’s appearance helps the film finish on a hopeful note, even if it’s one that belies the complications that followed after the Labour government established the Pike River Recovery Agency, and police opened an investigation which is still deciding on a prosecution as the 15th anniversary of the tragedy looms.
Pike River certainly delivers a long-view of the state’s failures, all foregrounded by the Rockhouse-Osborne campaign. But it will hit home to New Zealanders as something personal, while also perhaps providing some sort of closure.
Rating out of five: ★★★★½
