A BEAUTIFUL and true story . A gracious cast . A highly acclaimed musical director . All the ingredients are there for a successful film by director Amma Asante . Yet , somehow , the film suppresses a tale that should be mind-blowing in its magnitude – a historic shift in perspective that clashes violently with mass opinion , an unthinkable manoeuvre in a time of terrifying uncertainty .
MOVIE REVIEW
DIVIDED FEELINGS ABOUT A UNITED KINGDOM
A HIGHLY ROMANTICISED VERSION OF THE TRUTH . KEREN ZWICK
A BEAUTIFUL and true story . A gracious cast . A highly acclaimed musical director . All the ingredients are there for a successful film by director Amma Asante . Yet , somehow , the film suppresses a tale that should be mind-blowing in its magnitude – a historic shift in perspective that clashes violently with mass opinion , an unthinkable manoeuvre in a time of terrifying uncertainty .
Asante seems to be unable to relinquish her previously established style , best evident in her British slave-drama series Belle . Her reluctance to explore the story from a more confrontational standpoint renders the otherwise beautiful tale a generic retelling of what is actually an astonishing historical fact .
The biracial relationship dynamic is not new to film : but the true story of the king of Bechuanaland ( modernday Botswana ), Seretse Khama ( David Oleweyo ), and his marriage to British born Ruth Williams ( Rosamund Pike ) makes for a gripping and controversial tale in the context of 1947 global politics .
However , the film errs on the side of caution – choosing an overly subtle approach . In fact , it downplays the vitriolic racism of the reigning British empire , at its peak in the late
1940s , and instead implies these sentiments are only held by a few .
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