MR PIP

New Zealand, 2012, 116 minutes, Colour.
Hugh Laurie, you can Darville.
Directed by Andrew Adamson.

Mr Pip is a New Zealand production, based on a story by Lloyd Jones, a journalist reflecting on the experiences of Bougainville in 1989, the closure of the copper mine, the financial crisis and the international companies, the rise of rebels and the intervention of the Papua New Guinea military. It has been adapted for the screen by the director, Andrew Adamson, director of the first two Shrek films and the first two Chronicles of Narnia films.

The photography for the film, in Bougainville itself, is very beautiful and offers the audience the flavour of the South Pacific. The audience is immersed in the life of the village, the hardships of the blockade, the closure of the schools. Later in the film the action will move to Mt Isa in Queensland as well as to London.

In fact, the film opens in London where the central character, the 14-year-old girl grown to womanhood, Matilda (ZX) is visiting the Dickens Museum. Audiences will be wondering what the girl is doing in London. The film then moves to flashback and tells the story of the girl and her encounter with an Englishman, Mr Watts (Hugh Laurie making a strong impression).

The core of the film is Mr Watts deciding to start some classes for the children on the island. He is not a teacher but has a profound love of Dickens, especially for Great Expectations. This seems an unlikely book for children on Bougainville. However, he begins to read and the children respond, especially with their imaginations and the development of comprehension. Matilda responds very well to the novel, even to imagining herself in the situations of the novel, with Pip and Magwich in the cemetery, with Pip going to see Miss Haversham, with the grown-up Pip in London… The film is strong in showing the power of the storytelling, the power of the imagination, the possibilities for education with such storytelling. (And a reminder of how the Taliban takes stances against this kind of schooling for girls.)

There is a difficulty with Matilda’s mother, the leader of the church on the island, a Protestant-evangelical church, where she also conducts the choir, carries the Bible, and thinks that there is something too secular about reading Dickens instead of the Bible. When the military arrive, she has taken the book and hidden it in a large mat. There are dire consequences because of this.

While the sequences of Mr Watts working with the children are very congenial, the mood changes considerably with the arrival of the military, the toughness of the commander, the laissez-faire attitudes of his soldiers and their disregard of the locals. The commander makes the mistake of thinking that Mr Pip is a real person and that the village people are hiding him. When he returns second time, his avowed intention is to uncover Mr Pip with grim threats to the villagers. It is at this moment that there is a change of atmosphere with the shock of military brutality, murder and rape (and a reminder that this kind of brutality continues all over the world, in such places as the Congo and Sudan, and in the civil war in Syria).

The experiences have harsh consequences for Matilda. However, she is fortunate in being to go to Australia, to Mount Isa and stay with her father. And, in some act unexpected circumstances, she goes to London for the visit that we saw at the opening of the film. There she meets Mr Watts’s wife (Kerry Fox) and learns a lot about her teacher and why he was in Bougainville, about his Bougainvillean wife, her depression, the pathos of the reasons for it and Mr Watts’ self-sacrifice.

In many ways, the film takes on too many issues, so that during the film the audience have to move dramatically from one to another, sometimes surprisingly, but, by the end, within the two hour running time, the audience does have the opportunity to consider all these issues, whether political and economic, whether educational, whether economic or dealing with refugees and working migrants.

1. A South-Pacific? story, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, United Kingdom interests, Australian background? A New Zealand film?

2. Audience knowledge of Bougainville, of the difficulties in 1989, the closing of the copper mines, the job losses, migration, the rise of the rebels, the presence of the Papua New Guinea military, terror and brutality, the blockade of Bougainville?

3. The Bougainville context, traditional life, by the 1980s, life in the village, yet modern, the role of the church, of religious practice in faith, men leaving for work in Australia? Development? Halted?

4. The location photography, the village, the houses, the sea, the church, the bush? The musical score?

5. The Australian sequences, Mt Isa, the airport, the school, the homes, the atmosphere of outback Queensland?

6. The comparison with the United Kingdom, Gravesend, London, the streets, houses, Dickens’ Museum?

7. The introduction to Matilda, in London, going to the Dickens house, audience is puzzle as to why she was there?

8. The flashbacks, Matilda, the explanation of her name from the Australian workers, her mother, a leader in the church, seeing her speaking, conducting the choir, carrying the Bible, her religious beliefs? The father gone to Australia, some postcards? Matilda’s age, experience, a clever girl, excelling at school, the encounter with Mr Watts, reading Great Expectations, using her imagination, the story coming alive with her in it, in the local context but with British costumes? Clash with her mother? The Scripture versus Great Expectations?

9. Hugh Laurie as Mr Watts, the gradual revelation of his story, life in England, his marriage to Grace, birth and his wonder, the death of the baby, the depression, the red nose and the Queen of Sheba carriage? The opinion of him on the island? Going to the school, gathering the children, their response? His love for Dickens, Great Expectations? Quoting the initial line, Pip? Talking to the children, influencing them, the personal relationships? Daniel, Christopher and the other boys?

10. Matilda’s mother, the talk, telling the children to read the Bible, her wariness about Dickens? The other mothers and their coming to the readings? Her taking the book, hiding it in the mat, Matilda finding it but leaving it there, the consequences for Mr Watts, and for her own death?

11. The military, the harshness, searching for Mr Pip, the treatment of the people, the demands, not knowing Dickens, Matilda and the search for the book, not finding it, a gathering of all the books and burning them? The burning of the furniture? The later return, the commander, his arrogance, the demands, Watts and the quote, his sudden death, taken, hacked? Daniel and his saying he had witnessed it? The people keeping silent? Matilda’s mother and her assertion that she was a witness? Her being taken, raped, the bargain of her life her daughters, her death?

12. The funerals on the island, Grace’s death, the burial, for Mr Watts, for Matilda’s mother?

13. Mr Watts telling his story, the house in London, love, the birth of the child and his tenderness, the death of the baby and Grace descending into depression, their moving and settling in Bouganville?

14. The scenes of the novel coming alive, Pip his personality, the text, the definition of a gentleman, yet his being a snob, Matilda rebuking him, his late his being late for the meeting with Miss Haversham, the scenes in the cemetery with Magwich? The final rescue, his appearing at the end?

15. The village, the people, the oppression, there being victims? Matilda revisiting the copper quarries with the huge machinery and everything stopped?

16. Matilda, outside the village, seeing the red nose on the branch, going into the water, the rapids, washed away, in the sea, the rescue by the boat?

17. Going to the plane, to Mt Isa, meeting her father again, the room for a little girl, going to school, the introduction by the teacher? The scene in the library, the time-lapse photography of the books and the passing of the years?

18. Finding Matilda, the will, the lawyer, the house in London, going to England, to Gravesend, the modernity, the contrast with Bougainville, meeting Mrs Watts, the discussions, the tour of the house, Mrs Watts and her bitterness, especially about Grace? Matilda saying Mr Watts was always a gentleman? Taking the book? Seen the posters for the theatre on the world, and especially the chariot in the Queen of Sheba?

19. The Dickens Centre, the young man guiding Matilda, the Dickens tableau? The going home, the comments about home and not being ashamed of home? Her teaching the children?

20. The wide scope of the film, the range of characters and issues?