Late into the film, a character tells another one that a good story is in the telling. Of course, this film is telling two stories to us from a storyteller who probably can’t keep either one straight on their own. The movie is called Ten Canoes; it’s from the wilds of Australia, told by and about a tribe of aboriginals (the native Australians before the British came into the picture. The story is told deep into its rich history before colonialism reached its shores.
As I mentioned, we’re actually getting two stories; the first being about a young man yearning for his older brother’s young wife. The second and primary story is a morality tale told to the young man by an older man. During this telling, our storyteller is telling us the play-by-play of both stories (which are separated with one story told in color while the other is in black and white. He stops in mid-thought several times to switch stories without warning, and eventually finds some of his own jokes to be funnier than we do. But as for his story, we follow yet another young man falling for his older brother’s youngest of three wives. He gets her alone only to have her shove him away. The village has quite a few quirks to it, including an old man with an addiction to honey, a couple of jealous wives (who are jealous of each other) among other colorful characters. But their world comes to grinding halt with a foreign medicine man comes looking for a trade in magics and instead starts putting spells on some really disgusting stuff. And then there’s the disappearance of a wife, which leads a more major conflict. The story itself, as it turns out, is really about the ending, but a means of occupying time. The message at the end is the one that was basically told in the beginning with the luxury of an added irony. And even at the end, the storyteller can’t say that the message was learned of it was even meant to be learning in the first place.
I love new way to tell stories, different perspectives that shed light on deeper character insight. But this storyteller in Ten Canoes is the equivalent of being told the story of The Three Little Pigs by a drunken relative that needs to stop every five seconds for another drink. That is disappointing since the film does have some great humor in it and is giving us an insight on a world we know little about. The last time Aboriginals are given screen time was Phillip Noyce’s Rabbit-Proof Fence. In this one, we are given an insight to their cultural difference and traditions. Some are nearly barbaric, others quite endearing. Shot with the help of the people of Ramingning Tribe, the film feels authentic in it’s look on the lifestyle, but the way it tells the story feels really cheap and lessens the real drama and comedy of the story. The outer-storyline is worthless and doesn’t really mesh with the more thorough main story. On top of that, the black and white really mess with the white subtitles that makes it very difficult to understand what’s being said.
Director Rolf De Heer has made quite a few movies before Ten Canoes, so he must have known better how to tell a story. The film sometimes feels made by an amateur at times, such as when we’re given multiple versions of the wife’s possible kidnapping. And then there’s one moment when an actor puts his hands on the camera that breaks the fourth wall, but not in a good way.
All in all, do not get me wrong about this movie; it’s not entirely bad. In fact, there are places that are interesting, but the film doesn’t keep it’s attention in the right place most of the time. The movie might lure you in with the promises of a good time, and a good time you might have. As long as you don’t mind stopping every five minutes for quick drink.