Ah, New Zealand—where, when men call each other "mate" they sometimes mean it!
The story of a man coming out 30 years too late, Kawa should also have come out 30 years ago, at the time of its American counterpart, Making Love.
Although it's based on a novel, Witi Ihimaera's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, Kawa seems more like a short story that's been padded to achieve a minimal running time for a feature film.
The padding includes a fairy-tale leitmotif, "Once upon a time there was a handsome prince called Kawa...," which the protagonist is forever reciting to us and his young daughter, Melinda.
Kawa (Calvin Tuteao, handsome in an old-school James Bond way) is living the perfect life in Auckland. He has a beautiful wife, Annabelle (Nathalie Boltt), and two children, the aforementioned Melinda (annoying Miriama-Jane Devantier) and Sebastian (Pana Hema-Taylor, a less attractive Mario Lopez type), a rebellious, sexually active teenager.
Groomed from birth to take over the family business, Kawa is less than eager when his father (George Henare) decides to retire.
It's a perfect life but it's not Kawa's, and of late he's tired of playing along. He's taken an apartment and stopped spending his nights at home. He hasn't told Annabelle or anyone else why, but we find out soon enough when we see him go to a bathhouse.
Like many a late bloomer Kawa is making up for lost time. In addition to his casual hookups, he has a man he's seeing regularly, Chris Chapman (Dean O'Gorman), a stage actor. It's not clear whether Chris is out to the public, which would be rare in his profession, but he's pressuring Kawa for more of a commitment.
The stage is set for melodrama and Katie Wolfe, directing her first feature, doesn't disappoint—unless you were hoping for good melodrama. Kawa has to come out to everyone in his life, one at a time, and we have to watch.
The problem—well, one of the problems—is that Kawa comes off as one of the most selfish men in the world. Yes, he's suffered, and coming out can be difficult at any age; but he wants to have his dick and eat it, too. He wants to hold onto his wife, his children, his lover, his freedom, and to continue working at the family business but without taking on additional responsibility. At no time does he consider what he's asking of the people he loves.
Tuteao looks believably pained as he tries to arrange his life so he can have everything. Boltt does the emotional heavy lifting for the film, letting Kawa know what he's doing to her and the children.
The best thing about Kawa is the cinematography by Fred Renata, who must work for New Zealand's tourist board. Gorgeous shots of the northern beaches will make you want to pack a bag, although the stunt of having the lights of Auckland come into gradual focus to signal that Kawa's going out on the town is repeated at least once too often.
Bits of Maori language and tradition are thrown in to distinguish Kawa from the many, mostly better films that have told similar stories and are already a part of ancient history, as far as queer culture is concerned.
