The highlight of this film for me was Davinier’s confrontation with Lord Mansfield over Dido, which director Amma Asante staged inside the Mansfield family carriage. The irony in this stellar display of goodness is that the vicar’s son graciously yet relentlessly steals nearly every scene he is in. Playing the pious common man in period dramas can be a daunting task for any actor but Reid’s portrayal here offers one of life’s most important lessons, that genuinely virtuous people are the most fascinating, compelling and valuable creatures in the world. This was a risky trick, which could easily have implied a character’s dullness or an actor’s incompetence, but which Reid transformed into a startling revelation of this man’s spiritual depth and moral strength. To render such a man believable, Reid gave Davinier’s face a most peculiar stillness, almost as if the muscles were made of stone. Davinier is not afraid of the aristocrats who look down upon him, nor of the lifetime’s tribulations that an inter-racial marriage would bring into his life, nor of exposing the ruthless men who run a slave trade, because he is not afraid of his God. Reid appears to have used a first-rate actor’s education to ascend to a performing technique that is all his own.
Davinier is devoted to the anti-slavery movement, a subject upon which he bonds with Dido, to her family’s disapproval. The supporting cast reads like a Who’s Who of deservedly renowned actors: Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Penelope Wilton, James Norton, Tom Felton, Miranda Richardson, Alex Jennings, etc., all decked out in exquisite period costumes, with their scenes enhanced by a luscious score from composer Rachel Portman.īest for last: Sam Reid as John Davinier, a vicar’s son, and an aspiring lawyer. What goes unsaid in this film is that Dido’s appearance was also an unwanted reminder of a discomforting reality for the era: she probably did not owe her existence to consensual relations. Various characters express revulsion for her mulatto race and her illegitimacy. Dido’s idyllic upbringing is shattered, as all involved knew it would be, when she finds as a young woman that, despite an inherited fortune from her father, she is disdained by upper-class English society. The screenplay by Misan Sagay implies that the Mansfield family’s love for Dido would eventually inspire Lord Mansfield to render a verdict in a landmark legal case that would mark the beginning of the end of legalized slavery in England. Mansfield was the Lord Chief Justice of England, and master of Kenton House, where much of the film was set. As a child, Dido had become the ward of her great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson, in one of his finest screen performances). Gugu Mbatha-Raw has a lovely screen presence as Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay, the illegitimate daughter of an English naval officer and an African servant. Now it has become my inspiration.īelle is a uniformly well-done drama, with a moral purpose at its heart. It is still displayed in one of Belle's family's castles. These historical figures proved this long ago when they commissioned a painting of a portrait with Belle and her cousin with whom she grew up. A perfect time to quote, "But for the grace of God go I".Love has no color. They provide a protected environment until she begins to question their values and seeks information for herself regarding the treatment of African slaves. Her family is put in the precarious position of wanting her to live life realistically while not wanting her demeaned in any way. As a mulatto child, Belle lives a high life because of her family and personal fortune yet she is restricted in society. It means a child born of black and white parents. What if the "cargo" is human? What if the judge trying such a case for fraud has a daughter who could have been this very same cargo but for her social position?"Mulatto" was a word spoken in whispers when I was little. The lost cargo is then expected to be covered by insurance.
Lively lovely screenie movie#
Knowledge is power and this movie offers an opportunity to learn about racism at a pivotal point in history through the eyes of a mulatto girl.The central problem is a law allowing merchant ships to dispose of cargo if it is necessary for the crew's survival. With time I found they really were an ignorant bunch. Yet I have even been the butt of racist comments from the white family into which I married. My Latino friends tell me I look "white". When I speak Spanish people are surprised. Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2014īiracial racism.
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