Review of Belle (2013) by Tony D — 24 Oct 2015

I was underwhelmed by this movie.   It's a period drama about a mixed-race girl (whose name is Dido, the title is a bit puzzling) born to aristocracy in late 18th century England, and is one of those "based on a true story" flicks that's really just based on one small nugget of fact and then beefed up for the big screen.

   So, it's a weird hybrid of "Lincoln" and "Pride and Prejudice".  I guess it's pretty good as a standard  period flick, but it could have been a lot more.  The beginning is strong and thought-provoking, it delves into the issues of class, race, and gender and all the spaces in between, and you really feel how Dido is stuck.

  She doesn't belong anywhere in this world, and thanks to a strong performance by gorgeous Gugu Mbatha-Raw, you really feel her solitude and displacement.   But then... *sigh*...  then they bring a love interest into it and the film plummets into sappy romance land.

  That's fine if you like those kind of movies, but I do not, and my heart sank a little as this social commentary on class structure, racism, and sexism morphed into a fluff romance.  The film tries to stay grounded in reality by placing it during the resolution of a major legal case that got the ball rolling towards the abolition of slavery in England, but by moving the focus away from Dido's struggle against the system and towards her lovelife, the film's attempts to have a socially relevant message are lost.

   It's a shame, really.  Even though it's obvious that extreme dramatic license was taken with the story, the movie had potential to say something about social/political structure, even as it exists today.

   While it's solid entertainment and kept me engaged for the run-time, the saccharine-sweet ending left a bad taste in my mouth.