Taking vacations is a necessary part of a person’s life (and sanity) for many reasons. For one, people need a chance to get away from it all and enjoy the world around them. Some people take a couple days for this break, others a week or more, but the chance to step away from the hectic world we live in is there and the sense of relaxation happens. There are also things called business trips. Yes, you get to go to cool places sometimes and try local food, but you are there to work and to learn and have a goal for your company in mind. Now what happens when you mix the two? You get the person who says they are going to relax away from work, but actually is using their blackberry under the shade of their beach umbrella. No full amount of work is done; no complete amount of fun is enjoyed, but entire amounts of annoyance from a spouse is heard. This is the way Princess Kaiulani is portrayed.

Set in the historical backdrop of 1888, the island of Hawaii is on the brink of civil unrest. Americans have been colonizing for decades and they are slowly but surely taking over the island. The natives however, are fearful of the future of their culture and rights if the islands are to become part of America. The royal family of Hawaii has long fought to keep the peace, but one night, chaos begins and the 13 year-old princess Kaiulani must flee her home and her people and seek refuge in England. She learns the ways and culture of the people there and falls in love with a handsome and outspoken boy named Clive. When word reaches the princess that her people need her, she must choose between her new found love, and the country she calls home.

Of all the points this paragraph will talk about, one of the highest and most positive ones is the acting. Q'Orianka Kilcher plays the princess and does an extremely remarkable job with her part. Her scenes are believable and touching. In whatever scene she is in, she is truly captivating and steers her audience’s emotions in exactly the right directions she wants. The rest of the cast was good in their own right, but only Kilcher stole the show. The backdrop was gorgeous but that is expected when a film is shot in Hawaii. If the movie had a five minute-long shot of just a rock in the water, it would have looked stunning in their piercing blue ocean. As for the story, there is very little good to mention about the piece as a whole. The film never fully combined historical accuracy and juicy romance properly. If the writers decided to pick between writing a historical film and a romantic period piece, there would be less confusion for the audience. It made connecting with the story difficult when there were two plots altogether it seemed.

The film is rated PG for some violence and thematic material, and for brief language, sensuality and smoking. The violence is very minimal and only in a fleeting moment do we see blood. For the sensuality, there are a couple make-out scenes, but nothing more than kissing is ever done. All the other pieces they mentioned in the rating are so minimal, that it is hardly worth it to mention the smoking and language. I would recommend this film to history buffs or people who enjoy Kilcher’s acting. If you want to see the beauty of Hawaii for an extreme fraction of the price of a plane ticket, this also might be the route to take.

I give Princess Kaiulani one and a half out of five seashells. As a standalone love story, this film would have been great. As a standalone historical film, the movie would have been splendid. When you mix together the two improperly, it is like bringing the blackberry to the beach, which in thirty seconds your spouse will throw into the ocean.