'Belle' (12A)

****

In the 1700s, Dido Elizabeth Belle is brought to live with in England. She is the illegitimate child of a Royal Navy Captain and a slave, but her great-aunt and uncle decide to take her in. She is raised amongst the aristocracy alongside her cousin, Elizabeth, receiving the same education and care. However, her colour prevents her from being fully accepted into society, regardless of her position as an heiress. Alongside her journey of self-discovery is the Zong case, over which her great-uncle is presiding, the outcome of which will effect Britain’s involvement in the slave trade.

This is a beautiful and heart-felt period drama which deals with both a pivotal court case and a love story. Comparisons have been made to Jane Austen when it comes to the love triangle, and indeed the excellent script (written by Misan Sagay) displays the same elegant command of the English language as her books, but I would suggest that this film has slightly more ‘bite’ than you would initially expect. Yes, there are lovely houses and furnishings, and marriage proposals, and men turning out to be not as they first seemed, but the slavery angle looms over everything and elevates it above a simple period romance. Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Dido in an incredibly emotive performance, her large eyes and nuanced hand movements informing the audience of her intense, and sometimes confused, emotions from the beginning. Dido is a very rich character, and it would have been easy to make her too emotional, but Mbatha-Raw commands the screen with great skill, and really makes us feel for Dido, even though her situation is completely alien to us. Tom Wilkinson provides the other stand-out performance as Dido’s great-uncle, Lord Mansfield, who is overseeing the Zong case. The interplay between Wilkinson and Mbatha-Raw is a joy to behold, and Wilkinson capably gives Mansfield depth as he weighs up the differing arguments in the difficult court case.

Whilst Wilkinson and Mbatha-Raw are undoubtedly the stars of the film, the supporting cast are equally as impressive. Tom Felton is odious and repulsive as the racist James Ashford, speaking some of the most upsetting lines of the entire film, whilst Penelope Wilton and Emily Watson play the maternal figures in Dido’s life, interplaying humour with sensitivity, and boasting a fantastic wardrobe. The costumes are fabulous and there is a great level of period detail on screen, making it visually enticing throughout. The film is exquisitely shot, framing the close-ups well, alongside lovely landscape scenes. The score, using pre-existing classical pieces alongside new pieces, is well judged, although there is a scene wherein Davinier appeals to Mansfield through a coach window where I felt the music was perhaps being overly manipulative – we, as the audience, know the gravity of the situation without requiring the music to tell us. One could accuse the film of being overly sentimental and an unashamed ‘weepy’ but I would disagree with this as we still feel the pain and trauma of the slave trade through Dido. It is true that we never see any violence or the hardships of slavery, but the discussions of what happened to the ‘jettisoned cargo’ of the Zong is hard-hitting enough to send a shiver down the spine without having to actually see the incident occur.

After the horrors of 12 Years a Slave, some believed that an effective film about slavery could not be made again, but Belle proves this wrong. It is true there is no explicit violence or hardship on display, but by following the impact of slavery in the life of one individual, we are exposed to the same traumas that 12 Years a Slave exposed. The two films chose to address the issue from very different angles, but Belle should not be dismissed simply because it does not take place on a cotton farm.