We're going to see if the SECOND Tuesday of each month works out
better than the first one has done lately, in terms of movie releases
that are likely to interest us. So mark your calendar for May 13.
The film that strikes me as arguably the best scheduled to arrive by then is
Belle.
Check out the synopsis and trailer below and let me know if you agree.
Or, if you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Belle Storyline
Amma Asante's
Belle is
like a Jane Austen novel spiked with an extra shot of social conscience.
It's based on the true story of a mixed-race 18th-century woman named
Dido Elizabeth Belle who was raised in upper-crust British society but
never able to fully enter it. Beautifully played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw,
Dido is the illegitimate daughter of a slave woman and a Royal Navy
admiral who leaves her in the care of her aristocratic great-uncle (Tom
Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson). They raise her as an equal — or
as much of one as the era permits. While she's doted on by her family,
Dido's not allowed to dine with company, who regard her as scandalously
exotic. Or, as Miranda Richardson's catty Lady Ashford remarks, ''I had
no idea she'd be so...
black.''
As Dido and her impetuous cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) blossom into
young women, they're put on the marriage market. And the message is
clear: Women during this time were, like slaves, property to be
auctioned off, making Dido doubly powerless. The added irony is that
although she has a sizable inheritance, she's considered less
marriageable than her penniless white cousin. Who will love her? She
meets a commoner — a dreamy vicar's son (Sam Reid) — who's so fired up
about slavery and Dido herself that he always seems on the verge of
tears, or perhaps auditioning for the role of Mr. Darcy. Like
Downton Abbey but with corsets, culottes, and tricorn hats,
Belle
subtly skewers the absurd rules and hypocrisies of class. But the real
takeaway is Mbatha-Raw. She makes a case for why she ought to be a star.
