Review of The Woman King (2022) by Tristanhemlock — 19 Sep 2022

When I went into this movie, I already knew very well the history surrounding the Agojie and the actions done by the African kingdom of Dahomey. But because I've almost always appreciated and liked the roles that Viola Davis chooses, I gave it a try.

After Viola Davis declarations about what it would mean if people didn't went to see the movie, a big part of me wanted nothing more than to not even see the movie. But I took her statements, as her making a huge mistake, that might hurt an actual good movie.

And as it turned out, I wouldn't have lost anything if I hadn't watched this movie.

From Viola Davis, to Lashana Lynch Izogie and others. The performances were for the most part solid, and the natural beauty of the African continent all helped to make the movie tolerable.

However try as they might, and they did try, history didn't happened that way. Not exactly. The Woman King gives you the Hollywood edited version of history, but it doesn't give you the actual history. The ugly side of the tribe that Nanisca (Davis) is portraying.

It's understandable why they did what they did, seeing the times they were living, and the movie should've owned that, instead of trying to embellish the truth. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would've understood, or at least tried to understand what was happening historically in that period of African history.

But apparently they are too ashamed to own to their own history. Maybe because the actresses and actors, didn't even bother to study the history of what they were going to be portraying.

The movie is not good, not really. It's watchable, not just because of the performances but also because of the beauty of the African continent, and also in part the culture as well. However they could've cut twenty minutes to the movie and you'd have lost nothing.

It has too many moments that are slow paced, and then it just puts in the fifth gear and doesn't slow down. To the viewer that doesn't know anything about what they're watching, they might be deceived into thinking they saw a a movie about female empowerment, and how to fight against oppression to preserve one's freedom. Because that's what the movie tries to sell.

And it's really because of the embellishment of a hard reality, that was the reality of those times, that I couldn't really appreciate this movie. It would be like applauding inaccuracy for the sake of creating a nice story, instead of owning the truth and show how many times sacrifices and hard choices need to be made.

I completely understand how some people might be more than willing to close their eyes to those things, but the dual standard isn't lost considering other historical movies were also a target of great scrutiny. And if memory fails you, then remember the criticism done about Kingdom of Heaven for not accurately portraying the Islamic side of history.

So if all other historical movies have been subjected to critic of their historical accuracy, then The Woman King doesn't get a free pass. At least not from me.

And then there's the story of the movie itself. Completely predicable from beginning to end, some of the dialogues were cringe as cringe can be, and some actresses like Viola Davis tried to sell their roles so hard that it came out as far over the top.

Twelve Years a Slave was a great movie, however The Woman King is not. It's watchable in a way that you can see it and pass the time, but without ever getting pulled into the story.

This movie will add nothing to the career of the actresses and actors in it. And it will add little to viewer, that spends the 135 minutes watching it.

And so there's no doubts, this movie lost me because a) the story isn't good enough b) the story is too predictable c) some performances are just too over the top and d) the historical inaccuracy is unforgivable.