Designed to be both essential history lesson and costume weeper, Princess Kaiulani comes up short on both fronts: Deadly earnest intentions and lack of dramatic gumption ensure that the story of Hawaii’s favored daughter remains under-told. Skimping on detail and narrative depth, the film manages to misuse its embarrassment of natural resources — beautiful brown people in Victorian garb, for one thing; the tetchy notion that British colonization suited the Hawaiians better than American imperialism did, for another — in its determination to honor them with a queasy blend of History Channel import and Merchant-Ivory sweep.
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REVIEW: Flimsy Princess Kaiulani Serves Up Hawaiian History Lite
