Couple battle prejudice in real-life romance story
The opening title “Based on a true story” can cover a multitude of movie sins, but in “A United Kingdom,” it unlocks the door to a romantic drama that grows more remarkable by the minute.
While lovers faced with daunting obstacles is a dramatic tradition going back to Romeo and Juliet, if not further, the real-life barriers facing Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) when they fell in love in 1947 London were unusually intimidating and overwhelming.
The African Khama and British Williams had to contend with more than casual British racial prejudice, more than the taunts of yobs on the street or even the horror of Williams’ own father, who tells his daughter, “You disgust me.” Much more.
For Khama was a prince of his native country, the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (now Botswana), and about to become king. And Williams was on the surface simply an ordinary office worker, leading to taunts like “a chief cannot pluck a girl out of the typing pool.”
Back home, not only were Khama’s sister and the aunt who raised him aghast at the match, but so were big chunks of the country’s population, especially his regent uncle Tshekedi Khama (an effective Vusi Kunene), who demanded he abdicate the throne.
More than that, the love match caused serious international political dislocations. Bechuanaland’s neighbor South Africa, starting to implement its racial separation policy of apartheid, was furious at what it considered an affront, and as an influential member of the Commonwealth, that country had enormous sway with British policy toward the protectorate.
Quite a lot for a young couple to contend with; as written by Guy Hibbert (“Eye in the Sky,” “Omagh”) and directed by Amma Asante (“Belle”), “A United Kingdom” does a satisfying job of keeping all these balls in the air.
“A United Kingdom” is traditional, well-made cinema, with a taste for the obvious at certain points, but it has some powerful advantages. These include its remarkable story (Susan Williams’ book “Colour Bar” was a primary source), plus a director who knows how to convey its essence and a superior cast whose presence elevates the material.
Oyelowo, persuasively sensitive and strong, has been connected to the project since even before his role as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 2014’s “Selma” brought him to prominence. The actor helped persuade Pike, much sought-after after “Gone Girl,” to take the role of the unwavering Williams.
Certainly falling in love was hardly on Williams’ mind when she accompanied her sister Muriel (“Downton Abbey’s” Laura Carmichael) to an earnest event called the Missionary Society Dance. There she meets Khama, and the two bond over a mutual love of American jazz and, as it turns out, the energetic swing dancing they convincingly take part in as their attachment deepens.
The film’s portrayal of key Africans, starting with but not limited to Oyelowo’s and Kunene’s performances, is one of the strengths of “A United Kingdom.”
The married couple’s real-life battles with the forces arrayed against them were fought one skirmish at a time over a number of years. “A United Kingdom” understands that it was by no means easy, but emphasizes the centrality of their determination not to allow “the world’s ugliness to take our joy away.” They don’t, and we are all the better for it.