Savagely bad

>> Alain Corneau's Le Prince du Pacifique is moralistic and unfunny

by SIOBHÀN O'CONNOR

Ah, what history looks like through the eyes of French filmmaker Alain Corneau. Were it his to dictate, all indigenous people would be pleasant (if sometimes crazed) primitives, while all colonialists would appear to be world-class fuck-wits who weren't so much bad as they were misguided. That, and it would all be very comical with a tidy little ending and a strong lesson about respect.

Corneau's latest, Le Prince du Pacifique, is being billed as a comedy (though there's scarcely a laugh here) and is rife with sappy, message-heavy moments that are enough to make one's blood boil.

Prince du Pacifique is set on the lush Polynesian island of Fenua Poerava, where buffed, face-painted natives abound wearing togas and dollar-store-esque fake greenery around their heads. (Note to the make-up artist: making the natives look more like tattooed urban hipsters than tribesmen may not have been the best plan.) The film follows the heart-stopping adventures of the decorated French Capitaine Morsac (Thierry Lhermitte) who, after getting in a spat with his superiors, is condemned to a prison cell with the unruly natives and an Alsasian named Barnabé (Patrick Timsit).

With a little help from a man known only as "Soldat Deux," Morsac and Barnabé escape the dungeon only to be pursued relentlessly by French soldiers who are trying to kill them. Lucky for Morsac, tribal legend is on his side. The young Prince of the Pacific (Anituavau Landé) thinks that Morsac is the incarnation of one of the tribe's wayward gods who was said to provide protection from oppression and war. The Prince makes it his business to protect the captain as he thinks he will save his people from colonial rule. What ensues is a mystical journey through time where the softening Morsac learns from the young boy about the complex and rich culture he and his crew have destroyed.

It's hard to say what it is that makes this film so bad. Is it the cheesy "hardened military man learns from naive young savage" plot? The out-of-place jungle-porno soundtrack? The underdeveloped love story between the captain and the boy's mom? The feeling of colonial guilt that permeates the film is what pushed it over the edge for this critic. Steer clear.

Le Prince du Pacifique opens Friday, April 27