Review of Belle (2013) by Christian C — 31 Aug 2014

6.5/10 An enjoyable yet average period drama. "Belle" only has a list of positives and negatives that once balanced will clearly tell you what was your experience at the theater: the film has really nothing consistent to offer, nor does it provide anything new or concrete for you to think on.

It is just a straight up drama that has a very, very ornate surface, yet unfortunately misses any actual emotional or conceptual depth. On the bright side it has a very solid cast, which other than a couple of weak overacting links, delivers some very sweet and charming performances.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a wonderful leading lady both in looks and talent, but in the acting department she is overshadowed by the standout, who clearly is Tom Wilkison. He crafts a very, very involving performance and all of his acting talent, in its glorious mix of subtelty and range, is displayed on screen and manages to overcome scripting weaknesses.

The other major positive is the film's ability to suck you into the age it is portraying: it is truly incredible how much more I was into the scenes that simply portrayed the society in its daily life and its sofisticated mechanics other that the parts that framed the actual drama at the centre of the movie.

Contributing to this is for sure an astonishing quality of production and costume desgin. Which brings me to the negatives: the central story that involes the prohibited love because of racisim is so played out by the book, in such a banal and uninvolving, unsurprising way, in the mist of a very average and melodramatic script, that thanks to some solid direction didn't come across as cheesy as it could have been, it simply didn't offer any interesting dramatic tension.

I know the story is true and it comes off as totally belivable, but the movie fails to offer anything mildly original. Yet because of such a high production value and some very good actors "Belle" is a pleaseant time at the theater, but it fails in its ambitions and ends up having the focus of good scenes elsewhere from where it truly wanted to deliver.