[Review] Belle (2013)

cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Sam Reid, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Sarah Gadon, Tom Felton, James Norton

directed by: Amma Asante

“My greatest misfortune would be to marry into a family who would carry me as their shame” (Dido Elizabeth Belle)

Misan Sagay’s script is inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle beside her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray. Dido is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of Lord Chief Justice of England, William Murray nephew, born in the West Indies and raised in the Mainsfield household. The fictional portrayal of this young woman is penned on the background of the Zong massacre – for the movie goers it’s similar to what happened in ‘Amistad’.

It’s a history meets afternoon drama BBC movie acted with pathos, a movie in which we see familiar British actors playing parts we’ve seen in so many other pictures. So what does this “Belle” has as an extra that can make us want to throw away anything else and stick around to watch her trials and tribulations? As far as I’m concerned I’m not doing it for the wings and the corsets.

Matthew Goode loves to enthralls us with his big blue puppy-eyes. He stares at us and the melting effect is achieved, his character is good hearted, noble and possibly a Mary-Sue in the making since everything here is created to fit a controversial painting. In comes Dido. Gugu Mbatha-Raw has starred in Doctor Who and was Ophelia in Donmar’s take on Hamlet, opposite Jude Law. Doe eyed, elegant, educated and witty, Dido wants to shine but the stiff and flat lines keep her down, although the script promises an intriguing take.

If Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson do their best, their take as the Mansfield couple still feels like it’s something we’ve seen in many other historical romanticized movies. The tragedy comes from Miranda Richardson and Tom Felton. Lady Asford and her son walk straight into the villain type-casted actors. It’s no shame in being an actor known for the bad-ass roles he or she plays. The more the merrier and kudos if the parts are well acted but Miranda Richardson has simply surrended to the arogant, high and mighty type cast roles and let me get started on Tom Felton. I’ve followed the Harry Potter young actors. At the begining, Felton was the more experienced actor among the three noble Gryffindors. Look at him now. Tom Felton is trying to walk in the footsteeps of his on-screen father, Jason Isaacs. Where Isaacs balances his evil and good characters, Felton keeps trying to find some leverage after the Draco Malfoy years. He got a part of the sickly husband in “In Secret” but he keeps marching on, trying to find that it role. If a bad-ass is what he can to best and feels comfortable with  it’s all good and dandy but he’s an actor who has shown in his early years craft and talent and lately he is being type-cast – Murder in the First, Belle. James Ashford is a bully and if I try and look at him I might just see a glimpse of Colonel Tavington, a role done brilliantly by Jason Isaacs.

The movies about slavery are many, some are brilliant, some are bad, some feel like they’re PR statements made in favor of various causes and persons, “Belle” wants to be an idea of who this mulatto in the painting might have been but stumbles in murky waters with the hero of the tale. It’s not bad but at times it feels forced, working itself to a climax that never comes.

Edge and Back: 6/10

Comments