A beautiful movie.
Belle
Grade: A
Director: Amma Asante (A Way of Life0
Screenplay: Misan Sagay (The Secret Laughter of Women)
Cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Odd Thomas), Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton)
Rating: PG
Runtime: 104 min.
by John DeSando
“I am here to take you to a good life.” Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode)
So begins the odyssey of little Belle (Lauren Julien-Box) with her father leaving her off to be reared by the great Uncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) in 18th century England. Nurtured almost as an equal in this high-brow family—she is black and illegitimate—Belle, now Dido as adult (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), experiences pervasive prejudice and becomes aware of injustice to slaves, one of whom she might have been if her circumstances were not so privileged.
Although this mannered drama, straight out of the Jane Austen and Masterpiece Theater playbooks, is much easier to digest than the torture-filled 12 Years a Slave, the issues remain the same emphasized by the ruling that Lord Chief Justice Mansfield must make about insurance companies asking the court to deny shippers an insurance payout for slaves drowned at sea allegedly to collect the settlement. While historically accurate, the issue has particular resonance because Mansfield has brought up black Dido and could be open to accusations of undue influence in a case he must judge without prejudice.
The film moves deliberately to the court scene with dialogue poignant and powerful as Mansfield argues with himself and an idealistic young vicar’s son, John Davinier (Sam Reid), who secretly courts Dido. Writer MisanSagay weaves into the slavery narrative an allied theme about the slavery of young well-born women who must find a husband of wealth. The imprisonment of these ladies parallels the bondage of all slaves to “England’s most important business.” Whether your tastes are to sumptuous recreations of an era or the exquisite use of the English language in historic arguments, you will not easily forget the impressive new star, GuguMbatha-Raw, or the beginnings of civilization’s rejection of slavery. It’s all what cinema does best.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
