New Netflix movie Finding 'Ohana is a family friendly adventure movie about a young girl and her friend who set out in search of treasure. But as is often the case with treasure hunts we have villains, booby traps and the lingering question... is there really any treasure to find? Total Goonies vibes, so buckle up!
Pili and her brother Ioane travel from Brooklyn, New York to O'ahu, Hawaii with their mother Leilani to visit their grandfather. The family moved away from the rural town when Leilani's husband, the children's father, passed away, leaving grandpa Kimo to look after the family land. Kimo was upset by the move, and long wished for his grandchildren to learn of their heritage, and what it really means to be Hawaiian. When Pili is snooping through the belongings in a campervan on the property she discovers an old journal, with writing in multiple languages about a tale of travellers from a distant land sailing to the island, and what unfolded. As she works her way through translating the scrawl her grandfather discovers she's in possession of the book, and attempts to dissuade her from embarking upon what could be a lifechanging treasure hunt!
An underlying story in this movie surrounds Kimo, who is growing old and becoming more fragile after an accident he had. This was the reason for their visit, but whilst there Leilani discovers that he isn't paying his bills on time and could be at risk of losing the house, meaning a tough decision has to be made by the family on whether or not they try to move him out of the family home and away from his ancestral land, or they take the decision to leave behind their Brooklyn life to return to the rural area of O'ahu. Pili and Ioane love their life and friends, desperate not to leave all of that behind to live in boring old O'ahu! But Leilani understands the complicated nature of the decision and must think long and hard about it.
The adventure itself is very exciting, with climbing and traversing through caves, with physical and mental hardships that could mean that the 4 adventurers can't make it out (I might have fogotten to mention her brother and a resort worker named Hana join the two teens when they go to find them so they can take them home). There are also some really funny sequences, particularly when Pili refers back to the journal and what could be said or done by the characters mentioned. There are some pretty hilarious scenes between Chris Parnell and Marc Evan Jackson who were cast as two of the men who initially searched for the treasure all those years ago. Their on screen chemistry is electric and the way in which their characters perform; which I believe to be on the basis that Pili imagined they would behave in such a manner, is laugh out loud hilarious! Reminiscent of the Michael Peña story telling in Ant-Man.
I think the story was fun, with a solid cast and a great cameo from Ke Huy Quan, star of Indiana Jones and The Goonies, with a few references to his movies too. There were some points where the scenes felt drawn out a little too long, and there was perhaps a little bit too much of the serious stuff and not as much of the adventure as I would have liked, and that is why I gave it 6/10. I would definitely recommend - I think children might enjoy it more than adults as the adult stuff like debt, illness etc will just go over their head.
Review by CB
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