BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY
Dry-eyed women fight back against evils of colonialism in powerful film The Woman King
Remember when Viola Davis was known as the best, tearful-est, most blubbery crier in Hollywood? Well, you'd be advised to forget about that before heading out to see her in The Woman King. “To be a warrior you must kill your tears,” she advises a young acolyte. She also kills quite a few enemies of the Dahomey, a West African kingdom in the 1800s, now the nation of Benin.
Davis plays Nanisca, leader of a group of female warriors who helped protect the kingdom from bellicose neighbours, as well as European and American slave traders. But she's hardly the only strong female character in the newest film from director Gina Prince-bythewood (The Old Guard, The Secret Life of Bees).
The trainee she's advising to kill her tears is Nawi, played by Thuso Mbedu (TV'S The Underground Railroad).
A defiant orphaned teenager, handed over to the Dahomey king after refusing an arranged marriage, she is taken in by
Izogie (Lashana Lynch), who becomes a kind of Jedi master to this impulsive but talented student.
The Jedi comparison is apt on several levels, including the fact the Agojie, as these warrior women are called, are not allowed to take husbands. But Nawi's head is turned by Malik (Jordan Bolger), who is half-white, half-dahomey and all handsome. Oh, and he's also part of the slave trade, but he's conflicted about that.
The Woman King, from a screenplay by Maria Bello and Dana Stevens, quietly admits the uncomfortable historical fact that the Dahomey not only practised slavery themselves, but sold wartime captives into the American slave market. Also, their king (John Boyega, miscast and struggling with his African accent) has several wives. But he's at least willing to listen to Nanisca, who counsels him that to stoke the slave trade will harm all Africans, and that the Dahomey should consider trading palm oil instead.
Ah, but there are battles to be fought and won before they can turn to farming. Chief among the antagonists is Oba Ade (Jimmy Odukoya), leader of the Oyo Empire, who is gathering a coalition bent on taking down the Dahomey. He's not happy about being bested by a bunch of girls, either.
The Woman King is a powerful story with some wicked battle scenes — Black Panther meets Braveheart, I can imagine the elevator pitch going. But while it excels as a tale of female and African empowerment, its bones are a little creaky. Nawi's infatuation with Malik follows a well-worn path, and the story of her mysterious parentage and abandonment also feels narratively convenient.
No matter. The movie is a rip-roaring riposte to the evils of colonialism, and it had the boisterous crowd at last week's Toronto festival world première clapping and stomping in approval. And tears? There wasn't a damp eye in the house.