The Convert

The movie takes on a bittersweet note, bringing history to life in all its messy complexity - and the everyday players who shape it.

The Convert manages to combine an entertaining portrayal of an often ignored historical era with universal questions about whether it’s ever possible to build a human society on the foundation of something other than violence.

The Convert is uneven and doesn’t fully live up to its thematic ambitions. But it’s handsomely made and thankfully avoids falling victim to white savior syndrome.

The lush forests and stark, black sand beaches, shot in locations near those used in “The Piano,” help make “The Convert” more than a message movie.

Tamahori's film addresses how New Zealand's indigenous people were mistreated and exploited, but it's also an accomplished character study into the plight of three principles.

All of the time spent on Thomas Munro’s various campaigns for reconciliation and harmony between two Māori tribes hampers the film, which would have been better served had it expounded on the grander conflicts that it only superficially acknowledges.

It’s a pity The Convert can’t give us a bit more to grapple with, but it does feel like an entry point into a greater appreciation of the Māori people’s history.

Historical drama about the violent interactions of white colonialists and competing Maori tribes in New Zealand.

The combination of script issues and Pearce's mannered inscrutability means this intense, yet sometimes ponderous Last of the Mohicans-like saga is less compelling than it might have been.

The Convert is an uneven but enjoyable, angry epic by a director with a robust anti-colonial, pro-first-nation worldview, particularly pertinent now as Charles III is controversially touring Australia.