| Grace Under Fire |
Amazing GraceDirected by Michael AptedIoan Griffudd, Michael Gambon, Albert Finney, Romola Garai www.amazinggracemovie.com  Gruffudd as Wilberforce implores Parliament  Director Michael Apted onset.  Albert Finney as a blind former slave ship captain turned preacher.  Youssou N'Dour and Ioan Gruffudd as Equiano and Wilberforce examining a slave ship  Men in knickers! Selecting what aspects to put in a biopic I would imagine isn’t an easy one. What aspect of a person do you choose to focus on? What do you choose to omit? In the case of William Wilberforce, the main driving force of his life was pushing for the abolition of the slave trade, and how his faith drove him in that regard. It’s a very simple and straightforward story, so making a movie about him should be quite easy. Perhaps in this case it was too easy, because it quickly turns into a sort of biopic-by-numbers. The very structure of the movie is right off the bat kind of odd, because it starts at the mid point of Wilberforce’s crusade at a point of particular lowness. Wilberforce (Ioan Griffudd) is at this point getting jaded and frustrated with the seeming futility of his crusade, and the film then flashes back to the earlier, less frustrated days of his quest. Ioan Griffudd is quickly becoming Hollywood’s go-to guy for put-upon, unsure and often-in-pain leading men. Wilberforce is the sensitive type. He prefers to go out into the fields and frolic among the spiderwebs and berries over his day job in parliament. The slave trade is particularly upsetting to him, as not only is he the most sensitive person alive, he also has a preacher who was a former slave ship captain (Albert Finney). I don’t know if Finney was just saddled with the most corny, difficult dialogue or if he just chose to deliver it as such, but his guilt-ridden, tattered monk was something of an eyesore. Wilberforce’s crusade is aided by a large group of supported, including the young prime minister William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch), Wilburforce’s very, very close friend who also looks smashing in knickers, Oloudaqh Equiano (Yassou N’Dour), an American former slave with a curiously African accent, and the delicious Lord Charles Fox (Michael Gambon), Wilberforce’s former opponent who is not in the movie enough. The film could have also stood to have a better actress as Wilberforce’s wife (Romola Garai). Together their trials and tribulations fail time and time again, until the inevitable success of the abolition of the slave trade (the movie does manage to omit some facts, like the fact that the institution of slavery in Britain soldiered on for another thirty odd years or so). The film is by no means a bad film, but there are some definite flaws that seem to stem from a very formulaic approach to the making of a biopic, as well as very little faith in the audience itself. Both director Michael Apted and screenwriter Stephen Knight seem to shun any kind of subtlety when it comes to symbolism, right from the opening scene of Wilberforce demanding a man to stop whipping a black horse to having a vision of a very sad African man in chains glaring at him pleadingly in his bedroom. This in addition to the awkward structure of the narrative itself lend to a rocky start, but the film does hit a much better stride as it goes on. One important aspect of the film being able to stand on its own skinny, knicker-clad legs is Ioan Griffudd. I’m still on the fence as to whether or not Griffudd has the potential to be a truly great actor, but I like the guy. I was one of the few that defended Fantastic Four and his Mr. Fantastic, and the same applies here. I totally buy his put-upon sensitivity, his love of spiderwebs and his pet bunny. And I especially love any movie that uses him in knickers as liberally as this one does. Does he deliver a truly great performance? Not really, but it’s a damn solid one nonetheless, and it’s Griffudd especially along with some solid supporting performances (and a few iffy ones) that elevate this movie into something genuinely watchable, enjoyable and even a little moving.
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