(3.5 / 5)
In these turbulent and divisive times, what more apposite title could be found to open the London Film Festival than Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom?
However, the film is not an oh-so prescient rebuttal to present-day parochialism, but rather a polished period drama about colonial misdeeds past that nevertheless feels vaguely “state of the nation”.
The film tells the real-life story of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), then prince of the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, who, in 1948, chose to marry Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), a clerk at Lloyds, whom he met during his studies in London. While they expected resistance from Seretse’s regent uncle and Ruth’s conservative parents, neither were apparently prepared for the intervention of the British government; looking to appease segregationist South Africa.
Based on the book Color Bar, and adapted by Eye in the Sky‘s Guy Hibberts, A United Kingdom is a neatly simplistic moral tale. Seretse’s good intentions and Ruth’s naivety are countered by the political machinations of career diplomat Alistair Canning (Jack Davenport), whose cool tone practically weaponizes condescension, and the indifference, and in some cases understandable hostility, of the people of Bechuanaland towards this unthinkingly presumptive non-native queen.
As with last year’s LFF opener Suffragette, this has all the characteristics of high-profile Sunday afternoon viewing on Film4. Sam McCurdy’s cinematography picks out the streets of the British capital in fog and shadow and the plains of Bechuanaland and the African plains in dust and sunlight while Patrick Doyle’s orchestral score is suitably grand and romantic. Only Oyelowo’s impassioned restraint, as in Selma, and Pike’s blanched resilience lends any weight to proceedings.
A United Kingdom is a well-considered and entertaining plea for, ironically, self-determination, but also a reminder of the injustices that can take place when we assume separation or superiority. The film may be preaching to the choir, but it’s a refrain well worth repeating.
