Belle (2014)

Rating: 4/5

It seems to be quite a regular move nowadays to base a love and struggle story around some kind of true historical sources. From the many stories of Phillipa Gregory to Steve McQueen's recent masterpiece 12 Years a Slave, we seem to relate to it more closely if we can appreciate that these people really existed, and that this was, to some extent or another, what they experienced at a point in their lives. Belle is the latest example of this trend, and it's based upon the upbringing of Dido Belle, the illegitimate daughter of a naval admiral and an African slave woman, whose paternal great-uncle Lord Mansfield brought her up in the English aristocracy. The film particularly deals with her finding love and her supposed involvement in the process toward the English abolition of slavery.

Of course, the film's main theme is the injustice of slavery, and within that, the injustice of Dido's treatment in a white country as a black freewoman. Dido (the lovely and passionate Gugu Mbatha-Raw) lives in luxury alongside her white cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) under the guardianship of their childless great-uncle William Murray, the Lord Chief Justice, who is ruling over the case of the Zong massacre, whilst taking a radical young humanist named Davinier under his wing to show him the ropes. Despite Dido being met with suppressed outrage and shame when she is first brought to the Murray household as a child, they now make quite a happy family, with great-uncle William (the fabulous Tom Wilkinson) regarding both the girls as his beloved daughters. However, the delicious gossip of a 'mulatto girl' in the Murray family is quite a novelty to the social network of rich (or seemingly) snobs that they must associate with once it's time for the girls to come a-courtin'.

The casting director struck some pretty serious gold when deciding to put Miranda Richardson and Tom Felton together as the rival family - Lady Ashford and her weaselly son James. Richardson's sly matriarchal act has spanned brilliantly from Blackadder to the Queen of Hearts to Sleepy Hollow, and poor old Felton is probably one of the youngest actors in history to find himself so terribly typecast. Here he is a disturbing mishmash of himself and his onscreen Malfoy father, Jason Isaacs, as he dons one of those dodgy 18th century ponytail wigs. But he is tangibly more despicable, and more deliberate, as the bigoted young aristocrat. He also has a less interesting but more important brother (James Norton) who is briefly engaged to Dido, but she drops him with a powerfully eloquent speech, insisting, 'I do not wish to marry into a family who would carry me as their shame.'

Of course, the intelligent and topical young Davinier (Sam Reid) is on-hand to dispatch wisdom about marrying one's equal and true love, and together they smuggle evidence about the Zong trial, in which Dido has become increasingly interested. The movie's political theme, which starts out based mostly on Dido herself and her position in society, flows at this point into a greater historical context, in which the law deliberates on whether human life can be insured as cargo on a ship. The movie wishes us to believe, as these sort so often do, that our heroine had underlying involvement in what turned out to be a hugely significant step in social progress.

Upon researching Dido and her family, and the Zong trial, I could find no record of her doing any more than taking dictations for her great-uncle. She was, however, accomplished and educated. In the closing scene, in which the trial concludes and justice is done, we are given the obligatory 'person who shouldn't be in the crowd sneaks in and watches proudly as the once-doubted person in power puts wrongs right' stuff. And then the 'person in power finally notices the teary-eyed radical in the crowd who shouldn't be there, and emphasises their words more and builds to a glorious finish of swelling string music and cheers from the audience' stuff. I admit, it was mostly pretty predictable. Perhaps that's because, some 250 years later, we think we know our world well enough to guess what will happen.

But that doesn't take away from the fact that Belle is a very enjoyable and moving drama, which is well acted (ensemble also includes Penelope Wilton, Alex Jennings and Emily Watson), and a nicely romanticised version of history with just the right amount of political and societal speculation for it to still be enjoyed as a story.