Review: 'The Convert' undercuts the stranger-among-the-natives trope by providing a sharp view of 19th century Maori tribes at war

The New Zealand drama “The Convert” works with a familiar movie scenario — experiencing the culture of Indigenous people through the eyes of a colonial outsider — but it expends a fair amount of energy exploring that culture on its own terms.

Guy Pearce stars as Thomas Munro, a lay minister being transported by ship from England to New Zealand in 1830. The leaders of the colony of Epworth have hired Munro, and paid for his passage, to be their new preacher. But before he arrives, he encounters members of the two warring Maori tribes in the vicinity — and ends up caring for a young woman, Rangimai (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne), whose husband was brutally killed by one of the warlords, Akatarewa (Lawrence Makoare). 

The other warlord, Maianui (Antonio Te Maioha), who is Rangimai’s father, allows her to go with Munro to Epworth to be tutored, accompanied by one of his young warriors. Munro soon learns that the Epworth elders, who rent the town’s land from Maianui’s tribe, dislike their Maori neighbors and don’t think much of Munro for befriending them. The one friend Munro encounters is Charlotte (Jacqueline McKenzie), the European-born widow of a Maori tribesman, who acts as translator for Munro and Rangimai.

When Rangimai’s guard is killed one night, Munro defies the town leaders by accompanying Rangimai to take the body back to his people. Charlotte goes with them, so she can speak to Maianui — and, eventually, help Munro when he tries to negotiate a truce between Maianui and Akatarewa, who are equally resistant of ending their violent traditions.

Director Lee Tamahori — whose career has ranged from the Maori domestic drama “Once Were Warriors” to the terrible James Bond entry “Die Another Day” — doesn’t shy away from that violence, either. There are battle scenes here, split between imported muskets and native blades and clubs, that are staged with ferocious energy. And the script, which Tamahori wrote with Michael Bennett and Shane Danielsen — doesn’t cast Pearce’s Munro as a white savior in the midst of these Indigenous characters, but a human as flawed (if not more so) than anyone else here.

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‘The Convert’

★★★

Opens Friday, July 12, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for violence, bloodshed, some language and sensuality. Running time: 120 minutes.