What a fun movie – even despite being yet another take on a classic trope. The plot is simple – Adam is an unemployed Samoan guy who lives at home with his parents in New Zealand, spending his days playing video games. He sees a girl, Mary, and develops an insta-crush on her. He soon discovers that she likes island guys – but only real island guys, who know actual island skills.  He feels instantly defeated since that definitely isn’t him, until he learns that he has cousins – Mose and Tavita – in Samoa who, based on photos his mom shows him, are the real deal – complete with the tribal tattoos and traditional attire. He soon makes a trip to Samoa to learn how to do everything they can do – to essentially become the guy he thinks will win Mary’s heart.

So, off to Samoa he goes. The cousins are awesome. They showcase their skills with ease, whether climbing palm trees, husking coconuts, or weaving palm fronds into hats and baskets and whatnot.  Adam, however, is comically incompetent (though I can’t talk – the palm frond bag I attempted to make while in Fiji made the instructor literally laugh out loud). The cousins have their work cut out for them, yet they agree to help despite being incredulous that learning these things will actually make a girl like Adam.

I knew I was going to like the movie when, in the first 2 minutes, we see the cousins take coconuts from the tree, husk them, and begin to drink the coco water straight out of the nut. In addition to the impressive efficiency with which they do this, they have the best dialogue as they begin to drink. Tavita asks Adam, “You know why I got the ice? Because I’m a cool guy.” Then Mose asks Adam, “Do you know why you got the straw? Because you suck.” This was the level of humor – totally family friendly, dorky, and right in my sweet spot of making me snort laugh numerous times. Whether it was eye roll humor (“wake up sleeping ugly” or “tickle tickle tickle” to coconuts), bro humor (“let’s go get some big nuts! Big nuts!”), or silly relationship advice (“If the woman sees you do the weaving, they will be like, wow, that guy is very good with his fingers. Can you come to my house and braid my hair?”) – I liked it all. 

Anyway, we see the attempt to teach, and Adam attempt to learn. We see Adam struggle and flail, which is fantastic (especially his attempts to learn to climb the palm trees – “less grinding, more climbing!”). It’s like Pacific Islander Karate Kid. We even see children showing him how to do “simple” tasks like gathering cocoa and selling it to tourists. Of course, there is only so much patience for ineptitude that anybody can take, so we see frustrations and tensions rise.

Ok, so what happens? Does Adam get the girl? Does he learn what it takes to be a real island guy? I guess you’ll have to watch to find out. Though, really, here’s the most important reason to watch this movie – and to do so with kids: there is a lot of emphasis on having respect, gratitude, appreciation for parents and family, and hard work. When you encase those messages within a funny movie with beautiful scenery, you have a winning flick to watch with the kiddos.

As for watching the movie to get a good reflection of Samoa – it’s wonderful. The entire movie was apparently filmed in just two weeks, mostly on Upolu Island, Samoa. The views are breathtaking. We see some of bustling town with tourists as well as more intimate family gatherings inside the traditional fales – a round or oval home with pebble floors and thatched roofs. Meals are served while sitting on the floor criss-cross-applesauce style, and décor is pretty minimalistic, with the beauty coming more from nature and the surroundings (IMHO). Really stunning scenery overall.

The actors who played the cousins are native Samoans. Neither had acted previously yet were perfect (IMHO) in their roles. Vito Vito (Mose) was a cultural entertainer for the Samoa Tourism Authority; Fesuiai Viliamu (Tavita) worked at Samoa’s Ministry of Education as a network engineer. So, when we see them doing the “island stuff”, they’re really doing the island stuff. They intersperse Samoan into their conversation (English is the actors’ second language), as they complain and plot behind Adam’s back (yet right in front of him) as well as to teach Adam some words (like “polou” = hat).

From a cultural perspective, we see it all. There is a strong emphasis on family and reverence for elders. The island skills and ways of doing things are showcased, including building/using an umu (an above-ground oven of hot volcanic stones with food wrapped in banana leaves placed on top), harvesting / preparing cocoa and coconuts, palm frond weaving, washing clothes in the river, and more. Speaking of clothes, the cast wears some traditional garb such as Samoan puletasi (the colorful full dresses worn by women) and lavalava (the rectangular cloth worn by men in a wraparound skirt/kilt fashion). They do also wear shorts, t-shirts, polos, etc. – but we definitely see some of the more traditional Samoan clothing.  A final fun fact is that the movie was self-funded for very little, with a mere six-person team that included the director’s mom and stepdad. Okay, go watch it now.