Few people will deny Nelson Mandela's amazing story. His contributions to equal rights in his country, as well as his inspiration to forgive and overcome fear, are unrivaled. His passing brought tears to my eyes, which might have been embarrassing in the cafeteria I was sitting in when I saw the headline, but plenty of people were just as powerfully affected as I was. This movie had already released, but it hadn't come to my town, so I had to wait. When it finally came, I dropped everything to make it to the film.
What a sad disappointment. The power of a man who saved his entire country by sacrificing his life, his sanity, and even his respect from his followers, was told in a completely passionless way. Significant moments of his personality were downplayed, the film instead opting to make him look like a womanizer, and making him appear as a completely broken individual. Parts of his activism were so downplayed that, from an outsider looking in, it was actually confusing to wonder why exactly his imprisonment sparked a revolution. In fact, we don't really see his character demonstrate any leadership until his imprisonment. His imprisonment was downplayed, never as brutal as it should have been. Perhaps this is based on truth, but this experience obviously had a profound result on Mandela's life, so why did it seem so downplayed? Not to mention we hear news of growing revolution, but we very rarely see what the revolution is doing outside of the prison. Perhaps this is because of the focus being from Mandela's point of view. But without strong demonstration of him as a leader, why would I believe the focus was him? In fact, a lot of this movie focuses on his wife.
But there are two glowing beacons in this film. One is Idris Elba, who I absolutely love to begin with. He always puts a strong, silent power into his characters. It works wonders for Mandela, and he's an absolute powerhouse for the entire film. That being said, his character doesn't work thanks to the script. We see Mandela introduced as a cocky womanizer. But then, we see no character growth. We never fully see him change. That's unfortunate, and makes Mandela look boring. Mandela. Boring. Really?
The second beacon of hope is Naomie Harris, playing an amazing Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. She's an idealistic, passion-filled woman, in the film a perfect demonstration of what Nelson Mandela didn't want to become. I actually don't know how accurate this is of a portrayal, but I liked it nonetheless. I sympathized with her in the best, worst, most frightening, and convincing ways.
But sadly, these two characters are just not enough to carry a boring, poorly written story that ignores so much of the history its trying to show. It starts out with a promising display of Mandela as a person, but leaves it for a barrage of historical happenings, while skipping the most interesting. It's a shame. We need a better Mandela film. This just wasn't satisfactory
Rank - 2/5
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