Movie Review: Summerland (2020)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Jessica Swale  

Starring: Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Courtenay, Penelope Wilton  

Running Time: 99 minutes  

Synopsis: After a short prologue set in 1975, most of the movie takes place in the early 1940s, in a small village near Dover, England. Alice Lamb (Gemma Arterton) is a local writer and researcher of folk legends involving women, and is mostly shunned by the community for being single and anti-social. Alice is forced to host Frank (Lucas Bond), a child evacuee from the London Blitz, and despite herself forges a connection with the boy. In flashbacks, Alice recalls her one great love with Vera (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

What Works Well: The scenery is beautiful, and matches the lyrical evolution of Alice from angry and lonely to caring and connected. Gemma Arterton delivers a forceful central performance filled with unapologetic purpose, but also shines in moments requiring sensitivity. Director and writer Jessica Swale adds sprinkles of humour, and introduces the one narrative twist with a deft touch. The story takes place on the sidelines of World War Two, but the conflict casts a long shadow upon dynamics in an idyllic small community.

What Does Not Work As Well: The flashbacks to an interracial lesbian relationship, plus strong currents of anti-religious and pro-feminist sentiments, are wedged into the wartime context with heavy-handed clumsiness.

Conclusion: The post-bitterness journey is sweet, but also burdened.



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Movie Review: Misbehaviour (2020)

A women's liberation dramedy based on real events, Misbehaviour is the story of scrappy activists confronting the business of judging women by their body dimensions and looks.

In the lead-up to the 1970 Miss World contest in London, mature college student Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) is divorced and living with her partner Gareth and mother Evelyn. She befriends activist Jo Robinson (Jessie Buckley) and joins the fledgling women's liberation movement. Their group decides to protest and disrupt the Miss World pageant as an event that objectifies women.

Eric and Julia Morley (Rhys Ifans and Keeley Hawes) are the husband-and-wife Miss World organizing team. To counter allegations of support for apartheid, they invite South Africa to send two contestants, one Black and one white. They also add Grenada's Prime Minister as a judge, placing Miss Grenada Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in the spotlight. The Morleys secure the services of Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) as host; his wife Dolores (Lesley Manville) is less than thrilled, given Bob's penchant for womanizing.

The 1970 Miss World event turned into a flashpoint for allegations of sexism, racism, and corruption. In addition to the protests by the women's liberation movement, the pageant also featured the clumsy spectacle of multiple entrants from South Africa. Most famously - and ignored by this movie - the outcome was considered a scandalous fix.

In chasing after all the threads, Misbehavior is spiced with dry humour and never less than engaging. Director Philippa Lowthorpe juggles multiple perspectives, and the stellar production design recreates early 70's London and the glitzy Miss World stage, evoking a merger of the old, the new, and the soon to be ridiculed. The background context presents women as the primary audience of beauty pageants, with the chasm between Sally and her mum representing a generational fault line.

But with so much to chew on, it's understandable that writers Gaby Chiappe and Rebecca Frayn stumble. The narrative is spread too thin, with the wrong people getting too much attention. Four viewpoints compete for screen time: Sally and Jo's women's lib activities; Eric and Julia Morley organizing under a gathering storm; Bob and Dolores Hope navigating a cloud of passive aggressiveness; and Jennifer Hosten's backstage interactions with other contestants, notably Miss Africa South and frontrunner Miss Sweden.

Out of these stories, the grinding antagonism between the Hopes is out of place. Hollywood celebrities with wandering eyes is an old old and tired story, and here it just takes away from more important era-relevant events. Lawthorpe also spends unnecessary time with the Morleys and the organizers' buffoonish backstage antics. The performances are steady but confined to limited notes, with only Sally Alexander emerging from the clutter with a semblance of a backstory, while several of the other women are reduced to wallpaper. Misbehaviour captures a time and place, but with a wobbly coronation.

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Movie Review: Belle (2013)

A costume drama and romance, Belle courageously addresses discrimination issues through the lens of a unique young woman seeking her place in a disciplined social structure.

In England of the late 1700s, Navy Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) entrusts his half-Black daughter Dido Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) to the care of his uncle William Murray (Tom Wilkinson), Earl of Mansfield and the country's Lord Chief Justice, and his wife (Emily Watson). Belle's Black mother died young, and Sir John soon dies at sea, leaving Belle with a good inheritance.

She grows up surrounded by luxury but segregated by her colour, forbidden from joining formal dinners but otherwise enjoying life at the lavish Murray estate. Belle forms a strong bond of sisterhood with the Earl's other grand niece Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon).

Belle is intrigued by the Zong slave ship legal case involving the intentional killing of slaves by drowning. The resultant cargo insurance dispute is being adjudicated by her great uncle, with the country awaiting his decision. Belle also attracts the romantic attention of the passionate John Davinier (Sam Reid), the son of a vicar and an aspiring lawyer interested in a more just society. But another suitor complicates Belle's life, as she challenges a multitude of societal rules.

Based on a true story but with plenty of artistic licence to fill in facts lost to history, Belle is intelligent, engrossing and uplifting. Inspired by the actual 1779 painting of Belle and her cousin Elizabeth by artist David Martin, director Amma Asante and writer Misan Sagay create a multi-dimensional tableau of upper-echelon society in the Georgian era, where every action is strictly defined by classism and protocol. 

In this world Belle is an intriguing misfit, a half-Black independently wealthy product of an illegitimate union, and a blood descendant of one of the country's most powerful men. The context of intersecting currents colliding to shake loose kernels of societal awakening provides rich grounds for a rewarding narrative, and Asante quickly gets to work, teasing out threads of understated conflict. 

Within the Earl of Mansfield's house Belle faces contradictions, afforded a privileged upbringing but banished from the dinner table. As young women ready to be introduced to London's society in search of suitors, Belle and Elizabeth (penniless after being abandoned by her father) face different challenges and prejudices ranging from snootiness to racism. John Davinier is the disruptive presence, looked down upon as merely a vicar's son, but nevertheless intent on leaving his mark both on Belle's heart and his country.

Far from content with traditional costume drama conflicts and affairs of the heart, the film strides into the history of slavery in Great Britain, and Sagay's script demonstrates a deft touch to introduce the Zong incident, featuring mass murder, slaves-as-cargo, on-board disease, allegations of a water shortage, and an insurance dispute, in remarkably comprehensible morsels. The Earl of Mansfield is the rock around which all the waters churn, and Tom Wilkinson expertly hints at sparks of humanity shining through the gruff exterior of the Lord Chief Justice, tied to laws but with the power to change them.

The third act brings Belle's personal story to the crossroads of her nation's history. Even in a most regimented society, willing provocateurs ensure change is a constant.



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The Movies of Gugu Mbatha-Raw

All movies starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Larry Crowne (2011)

Belle (2013)

Concussion (2015)

Free State Of Jones (2016)

The Whole Truth (2016)

Miss Sloane (2016)

Beauty And The Beast (2017)

Misbehaviour (2020)

Summerland (2020)

The Woman In Cabin 10 (2025)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Whole Truth (2016)

A basic courtroom drama, The Whole Truth is shallow and fairly rudimentary.

In Louisiana, defence attorney Richard Ramsay (Keanu Reeves) is representing seventeen year old Mike Lassiter (Gabriel Basso), accused of stabbing his businessman father Boone (Jim Belushi) to death. Richard is a family friend of the Lassiters, including Boone's widow Loretta (Renée Zellweger), but Mike refused to say anything ahead of the trial, hampering defence preparations.

The trial starts and prosecutor Leblanc (Jim Klock) has a strong case, with Mike having been found over his father's dead body and all but admitting to the murder. But in surprise testimony by Loretta and Mike himself, a more complex picture of events starts to emerge. Richard's inexperienced but perceptive assistant Janelle Brady (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) starts to suspect there is more to the case than is being revealed in court.

It's only a better-than-average cast that keeps The Whole Truth away from television movie-of-the-week territory, and even then the film barely proves worthy of any other designation. Directed by Courtney Hunt and written by Nicholas Kazan, the first-draft level script sets up for one big revelation and another twist in the tail, but forgets all the basics along the way.

The courtroom proceedings are sloppy in the extreme, testimony is accepted without corroboration or evidence, both lawyers awful in representing their case. The script is more interested in placing first Loretta and then Mike on the witness stand with no foreknowledge as to what they will say, and the flashback recreations, as well as the dull narration by Ramsay, are of no help: they change according to each subsequent unreliable witness.

It all leads to a rushed and awkwardly explained final curve intended to shock but in reality and as presented, makes little sense.

Keanu Reeves is more bland and blank than usual, his narration exceptionally unsuitable, aiming and totally missing a noir vibe. Zellweger and Mbatha-Raw fare better, but both their roles are underwritten. Belushi boorishly trundles through the flashback scenery as Boone, amplifying the deserved-victim designation. The rest of the cast members struggle to step over the amateur bar.

The Whole Truth is courtroom light, and deserves to be cited for contempt due to under preparation.

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Movie Review: Miss Sloane (2016)

A spirited political thriller, Miss Sloane boasts a phenomenal Jessica Chastain performance and a rewarding plot.

In Washington DC, high-powered lobbyist Elizabeth Sloane (Chastain) is dragged in front of a congressional hearing presided over by Senator Sperling (John Lithgow) investigating allegations of unlawful influence peddling. In flashback, the events of the prior three months are revealed. Sloane is the star lobbyist at the firm of Cole Kravitz & Waterman managed by George Dupont (Sam Waterston), currently working for Indonesian interests to oppose a proposed palm oil tax bill.

She refuses an assignment by the gun lobby, represented by Bill Sanford (Chuck Shamata), to oppose a pending gun control bill. Instead, she defects to the smaller firm of Peterson Wyatt, run by Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong), to lobby for the legislation and takes half her team with her, although loyal researcher Jane Molloy (Alison Pill) refuses to join the exodus. Despite being massively outspent, Sloane's team make progress in securing congressional votes. Team member Esme Manucharian (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), herself a victim of gun violence, emerges as an eloquent spokesperson. In desperation, Dupont and Sanford launch a smear campaign targeting Sloane's reputation.

Directed by John Madden, Miss Sloane is an electrifying talkfest. Thanks to a gripping Jonathan Perera script, this is a remarkably taut story centred on a captivating character who redefines what it means to be highly-strung. The 132 minutes of drama whiz by effortlessly, Madden building up an irresistible head of steam with a classic David versus Goliath battle for control of the soul of Congress over one of the most heated issues in American politics.

Elizabeth Sloane is one of the most compelling women to command a movie. Addicted to psychotic drugs that keep her awake, she works 16 hours a day, thinks and talks twice as fast as everyone else, and runs laps around her opponents. She also does not hesitate to use and hurt people close to her, abuses the trust of others, and leads a lonely life that includes hiring male prostitutes to emotionlessly satisfy her sexual desires. Ironically, her latest gigolo Forde (Jake Lacy) gets closest to cajoling personal thoughts out of her overactive mind. Chastain gives the performance of her life, and is never better than when fine cracks finally start to appear in Sloane's seemingly impenetrable armour.

And Perera surrounds Sloane with plenty of worthwhile allies and enemies. Esme Manucharian blossoms from behind-the-desk researcher to media star under Sloane's tutelage, but the master lobbyist still has other plans for her young protégé. Rodolfo Schmidt thinks he knows what he is doing when he hires Sloane, but is soon barely hanging on as she rumbles through his firm like a tornado. And Jane Molloy, who stays at the slick firm of Cole Kravitz & Waterman to battle against the gun control bill, finally has a chance to emerge from Sloane's shadow and create her own legacy.

Multiple story lines are nurtured, developed and brought together in the film's final third. The proposed tax on Indonesia palm oil, the gun control bill, the campaign to sully Sloane's reputation, the bitter battle between firms, and Sloane's own crystallizing view of her personal morality come together in a stunning climax. Miss Sloane plays a high stakes game in the unforgiving political arena, where both the strategic maneuvering and the price to be paid are spectacular.

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