7.5/10

An Oscar worthy performance, a self conscious period piece, and a story about multiple predjudices are the culmination of Amma Ansante’s feature about the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is a mixed race daughter of Admiral John Lindsay (Matthew Goode). Lindsay passes away in war, so Belle is Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), Belle’s lineage affords her certain privileges, yet her status prevents her from the traditions of noble social standing. I felt this movie did a lot of things right considering it’s a period piece and i don’t get into those too often. Raw deserves an early Oscar nomination for the way her character goes through prejudices of not just outsiders, but her family as well. She takes a script that can be very vague with the emotions it is trying to convey and steals every scene with the kind of talent that a movie like this would be lost without. That’s not to say everything else about Belle isn’t enjoyable. It’s got a great cast led by Wilkinson, Watson, and one of my favorite actors Matthew Goode. It’s sad that Goode wasn’t in this movie longer than 10 minutes as it’s his readings with a young Belle that make for some of the most touching scenes of the movie. While watching this film, i was quite surprised to discover that this film isn’t just about racial discrimination but gender discrimination as well. England in the 1700’s became the catalyst for slave trading between many of the Admirals. For a movie like Belle to explore this early in slave history is something that is refreshing for once. I think last year’s 12 Years a Slave was the absolute pinnacle of what a racial prejudice movie could be about, but Belle does it in a way that is factual without being overdone. It’s true, there are no long shots of violence towards Belle or anything that makes us feel great terror for the character, but her situation still has us getting behind her because of the performance of Raw as i listed above. Belle is very polite considering the premise, and that is one thing i wish it could’ve explored deeper. Not every film about race has to be brutal, but it’s important to explore the kinds of hells that our characters go through, so that the payoff means even more at the end. The wardrobe is definitely the best i have seen this year, but i felt the wig designs could have been done a little better. It may be nitpicking, but i felt many of the wigs were giving away the real hair underneath of the actors and actresses. It took me out of a couple scenes where the suspension of disbelief is important. The dialogue was read very well ,and there are many scenes that i would love to go back and look at again on DVD. I think a film like this has great 2nd watch ability as there are many things that could be lost by the viewer in translational dialogue. The score is subtle, but make for enhancements to some of the best and worst moments of our main character. It’s light classical music that might be boring listening to it alone, but it fits so perfectly in a movie like this. Belle is a film that is average in most aspects, but it’s the performances that make this film a front runner in early Oscar favorites. Hard to recommend unless you are interested after watching the trailer. Many people aren’t into period pieces, but this one makes room at the top of the list.