Loving Film Review - Civil Rights Drama (may contain spoilers)
This is a racial harmony drama, based on a true story about Mildred (Ruth Negga) and Richard (Joel Edgerton). Richard is a labourer who is pulled along as the reluctant protagonist. Set in the 1950's. They were married in Washington but arrested when returning home to Virginia.
Interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia and the judge demanded that they left the state for 25 years, shocked by his ruling Mildred writes to R. Kennedy and this sparked off an important legal case which became a media story. Richard was a quiet, private man who just wanted to love his wife and remain isolated from the media, it's obvious that he really didn't want the story to go public. A magazine photo article, created more public interest in the story and the case escalated all the way to the Supreme Court and ultimately altered the constitution of the USA.
There were some emotional scenes and sensitive performances, but I just found the film was lacking sufficient emotional drama, maybe some scenes from the Supreme Court hearing might have provided the climax I was missing?
I wanted to like this but couldn't help comparing with 'United Kingdom' which followed a similar theme but was a far superior film. Though I'm a big fan of understated films, this two hour film felt more like a three hour epic.
5/10.
Interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia and the judge demanded that they left the state for 25 years, shocked by his ruling Mildred writes to R. Kennedy and this sparked off an important legal case which became a media story. Richard was a quiet, private man who just wanted to love his wife and remain isolated from the media, it's obvious that he really didn't want the story to go public. A magazine photo article, created more public interest in the story and the case escalated all the way to the Supreme Court and ultimately altered the constitution of the USA.
There were some emotional scenes and sensitive performances, but I just found the film was lacking sufficient emotional drama, maybe some scenes from the Supreme Court hearing might have provided the climax I was missing?
I wanted to like this but couldn't help comparing with 'United Kingdom' which followed a similar theme but was a far superior film. Though I'm a big fan of understated films, this two hour film felt more like a three hour epic.
5/10.
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