movie review: hibiscus and ruthless

Review: ****
This is a really good New Zealand movie.  I enjoyed the storyline.  There was plenty of humour, drama and some romance which made for a good mix.  The film was screened in the Deluxe theatre, which was really nice.


Starring: Suivai Pilisipi Autagavaia, Anna-Maree Thomas


Plot: The film begins by showing how the Samoan Hibiscus (Suivai Pilisipi Autagavaia) and her European friend Ruth (Anna-Maree Thomas) became friends at school when they were both sitting under the same tree in the playground.  We then fast forward to university, where Hibiscus and Ruth are both studying Engineering.  Hibiscus lives at home with her strict mother and grandmother.  Her mother has a lot of rules for Hibiscus, including the policy of not dating boys.  Hibiscus relies on support from Ruth in this regard.  Hibiscus has a part-time job at a restaurant.  Sure enough, what lets Hibiscus down academically is boyfriends, of which she has several in the course of the film.  One of her interests is a boy from work.  Her studies fall to the wayside. For the final year of their course, Hibiscus and Ruth are meant to design a device as part of their project.  During their assessment, it becomes apparent that Hibiscus fabricated data for their surveys.  Both girls fail the assessment and are made to re-do their entire final year again.  The film shows them both graduating one year later.  At the end of the film, Hibiscus reconciles with both Ruth (from whom she had become estranged once she started dating her co-worker at the restaurant) and her mother.  We learn that Hibiscus’s mother is so strict because she fell pregnant with Hibiscus when she was young and this prevented her from being able to pursue studies herself.  The film ends with Hibiscus’s mother relaxing the rules at a scene around their dining table with Hibiscus’s grandmother, Ruth and Hibiscus having an afternoon tea and she allows Hibiscus to use her common sense in making decisions about her education and well-being.