Review of Pride (2014) by Viet Phuong N — 28 Dec 2014

This film won the British Independent Film Award over "Calvary", "Mr. Turner", and "The Imitation Game", what a feat! And deservedly it did, although not by a big margin. If only the director had kept up with the dramatic tone, the film would have been much more dramatic and effective, in my opinion, since the subject and theme of this film consist the most fertile ground for a good drama - social struggles for equality mixed with internal quests of finding oneself.

My sometimes he fell for lighthearted touches of "stage/musical" style, which made the film much more cheerful and up-lifting to watch, but at the same time cut off the emotional stream of feelings by the audience built up by the previous moving sequences (and I just realized that the director is indeed a more accomplished stage director and is planning for a musical adaptation of this film, which I believe will be even more successful due to its stage-suitability).

But as a blade having two edges, the cheerful tone of "Pride" also brightened up its characters, whose everyday lives were often put in the dark due to the social and political prejudice against miners and LGBT.

As such, almost every character in the film stands out and is easily recognizable for their liveliness and their will to fight for what they believe. The weaknesses of the film might be the shaky emotion build-up, as mentioned above, the lack of "true climax" (although I did actually enjoy this style - rather having some fun and care-free moments than watching heavy dramas all year long), and a very uneven "second act".

However, the brief but extremely powerful ending did concluded this film on a high note. If only the film had been a true cinematic drama rather than a stage-alike piece, but not every one can be Sam Mendes (who jumped from his stage career to film career with instant success), so we should sit down and enjoy the film for all the optimistic thoughts it has, which shone through the film like a beam of sun light piercing through the cloudy sky in December.