Will Emancipation bring redemption for that Oscar slap?
Will Smith’s new film is called Emancipation, but what it really offers him, at least, is an outside chance of redemption. He is currently banned from the American Academy for ten years after slapping Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars ceremony, and Emancipation is exactly the sort of film that picks up award nominations. Wouldn’t that cause a headline-grabbing stir?
Like 12 Years A Slave (nine nominations) before it, Emancipation focuses on America’s appallingly cruel slave-owning past. Set in Louisiana during the Civil War, it sees Smith playing Peter, a devout Haitian, father, husband and slave who is violently forced to work for the Confederate army.
At the camp where he is taken, the brutality and conditions are even worse than at the cotton plantation where his family are enslaved. Whippings, brandings and summary executions are all commonplace and slaves are routinely worked to death.
So when Peter sees a chance to escape, he seizes it. All that lies between him and freedom are the Louisiana swamps, a posse of relentless pursuers and their pack of tracker dogs. Most ‘runners’ don’t last a day…
It’s an overlong and familiar story of the chaser and the chased, where the pursued has to harness all his resourcefulness to outwit his relentless pursuer, played by well-practised baddie Ben Foster.
Director Antoine Fuqua (best known for Training Day) drains the screen of colour so much that you can almost mistake it for black and white. As for
Smith, he gets bloodied, muddied and goes 12 rounds with a Francophone accent.
Helped by some impressively staged climactic battle scenes, there’s no doubt Emancipation has relevance, power and awards appeal. But while many will begin it, how many will actually make it to the end?
Another week, another Christmas romcom, but This Is Christmas, despite the uninspiring title, is a good one, reliant not on magic or coincidence but on simple human kindness.
Adam (Harry Potter’s Alfred Enoch) is a successful advertising man and a regular on the commuter train into London. Every day he sits in the same seat and every day he quietly marvels that nobody talks to each other. Until one day, in the run-up to Christmas, when the train is stuck at a signal he gets up and announces to the entire carriage that he thinks they should have a Christmas party.
Obviously, most people ignore him but, slowly, the idea gains traction, helped by Emma (Kaya Scodelario) quickly agreeing to help him. Enoch and Scodelario are quietly excellent together, ably assisted by a classy supporting cast that includes Timothy Spall and Joanna Scanlan.
In Nocebo, Eva Green plays Christine, a successful fashion designer until an unspecified disaster tips her into a mental and physical collapse. Her husband (Mark Strong) is supportive but all seems hopeless until a Filipina woman unexpectedly arrives offering help.
Christine can’t remember hiring her, but Diana (Chai Fonacier) loses no time moving in.
Lorcan Finnegan, who made Vivarium, directs with brio but you can see a vital twist coming a long way off.
The Silent Twins is a beautifullooking film that tells the often distressing story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical twins who grew up in Wales in the 1970s and decided not to speak, despite the fact that they were bright, highly imaginative girls.
It’s fabulously well told by director Agnieszka Smoczynska, and good to see Black Panther star Letitia Wright investing both her money and her talent in this impressive, if eventually overlong, arthouse project.