Review of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) by Kyle H — 26 Apr 2014

Director Justin Chadwick's attempt to convert Nelson Mandela's autobiography into a movie ends up having to truncate too much of the material to reach the type of effectiveness that could have possibly been drawn out if the story were told in a different format.

Even so, Idris Elba and Naomie Harris deliver incredibly powerful performances that transcend the potential bounds of the over-crowded screenplay and reach to create great depth of character. The shots are also well arranged and beautiful, allowing the audience to be fully immersed in the "tragic beauty" (if I may use that cliche phrase) of Mandela's life.

Perhaps the sorrow of Mandela's journey is emphasized a bit too much with too little attention given to the hopeful later end of his life. This is issue belongs more to the director and writer than anyone else, though.

LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is also paced so that the drama is streamed in at such a steady rate that the energy of the climax is not much different than in any other moment of the movie. Even so, again, Elba and Harris manage to pull genuinely moving moments from their elaborate acting and the images of the piece are sweeping and engaging.

The score should also be praised - it does a better job of controlling energy and indicating parts of dramatic structure than the visual editing. There are certainly great things to appreciate about what was done in LONG WALK TO FREEDOM.

.. the movie is simply over-stuffed. Too much story with flat pacing is difficult to get over, but such problems may be preferable over stories that share too little of Mandela's great life.