Like the seashells treasured by the Hawaiian princess of the title, Marc Forby’s bio-pic is gaudy, brittle, and hollow. The daughter of a Scottish businessman and a Hawaiian royal, 13-year-old Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn (Q’orianka Kilcher) flees to Britain to escape when white landowners start putting the squeeze on her uncle the king.
As US troops blow away the native royalists, a blissfully ignorant Kaiulani falls for wealthy Clive Davies (Shaun Evans). Finally made aware of her country’s troubles, she dumps Clive and sails to America, where, furious, she has lunch with President Grover Cleveland (Peter Banks).
Then she returns to Hawaii, where, defiant, she hosts a dinner party. But to no avail. Someday, a great movie will be made about Hawaii — perhaps one in which Sanford Dole (Will Patton), cousin of the pineapple king, doesn’t come off as a hero, and the saga of greed, treachery, and lies isn’t reduced to platitudes and clichés. In the meantime, Princess Kaiulani offers some nice sunsets.
