Story of unlikely marriage should be better
“A United Kingdom” tells the true story of the courtship and marriage of an African king and a white British woman in the years after World War II.
Seretse Khama of Bechuanaland (later Botswana) was a student in London when he met Ruth Williams. Their subsequent union had widespread reverberations.
Directed by Amma Asante, who made the superb film “Belle” (2013), “A United Kingdom” is a dutiful and earnestly made account of this slice of history. Certain details are glossed over out of convenience and others are emphasized and, to a degree, even fictionalized for the sake of drama. For the most part, though, the story is rendered faithfully — and is an interesting story.
In the decades that followed, the principals became enduring political figures. The couple’s eldest son, Ian Khama, is the current president of Botswana.
Yet there’s something unmistakably limp about “A United Kingdom.” To call it dead on-screen would be excessive, but the film never exactly comes alive, either.
The problem seems to lie in the portrayal of the main characters: Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) is presented as a borderline saint, a man who could honestly say during a job interview that his worst trait is that he works too hard.
Rosamund Pike fares worse as Ruth Williams Khama. The actress, who has never been less than charming and has often been turbulent and interesting in her portrayals, seems lost here, all but abandoned by the director and given little to play with by the screenwriter.
For most of the film, Pike wears an expression of benign confusion, always smiling but looking vaguely Directed by Amma Asante.
PG-13 (for some language, including racial epithets; and a scene of sensuality) 1:51 at the Drexel and Lennox 24 theaters
imbecilic. Perhaps we would all look this way while living in a foreign country and not knowing the language, but the portrayal doesn’t serve the larger aims of the movie.
“A United Kingdom” is stuck between two possible intentions and can’t achieve either. As a love story, the movie fails to make us fall in love with Seretse and Ruth as a couple. We appreciate them. We wish them well. We even root for them to be happy, but neither is human nor vivid enough to command our affection.
At the same time, “A United Kingdom” fails to become an incisive or dramatic account of midcentury southern African politics. Politics is, of course, alluded to, but always in the context of a turn of events or an enforced separation that might affect the young couple and, later, their young family.
Otherwise, politics remains a distant subject, one that becomes compelling only when Jack Davenport appears as a snide, cold-blooded midlevel British diplomat, Sir Alistair.
Sir Alistair is such a pleasure to watch that it seems unsurprising that he is fictional. Some of the best characters are.
Still, for all the movie’s flaws and missed opportunities, “A United Kingdom” features committed performances and illuminates events that are, in themselves, worthy of note.
The film isn’t bad; it’s just, strangely, not a good one.
“A United Kingdom.”