Film number 39 of 2022
The Film: The Woman King
The Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens
Stars: 3
At a loose end, Jay and I took ourselves off to see The Woman King.
I sort of wish I listened to my gut and went to see something a bit artier at the Kino.
Or maybe this film just wasn't my cup of tea, even though the intention was there. I mean, it stars Viola Davis. How bad can it be?
How bad can it be? Despite reasonable reviews, I don't rate this film, despite my politically correct and inclusive self saying that I should give it good marks. But I'm rating this down for feminist reasons - and the laboured script... and yeah, okay, this wasn't too my taste. Oh well.
Sorry. I can't say too much in praise of this. I was bored.
This is not to say that there aren't good things about the film.
The cast is great. Viola Davis is Nanisca, the general of an all-woman army in the province of Dahomey (current day Benin). These women are hard arses, keeping the country safe from slave-traders, who have robbed the country of half its population over the years. She's seen and done it all and comes across as world weary and quite frankly, a bit over all the fighting.
These women of the army are tough. Lashana Lynch is great as Izogie, the tough but fair trainer of the women. Sheila Atim is Amenza, the wise woman of the group who give wise council to Nanisca.
And then there is the sub-plot concerning Nawi (Thuso Mbedo) a girl who is given over to the army, takes on the training and rises to the top of her class of warriors.
And politically, the tribe are under constant attack from other tribes who pick off the group and sell them to the slave traders. Hero Fiennes Tiffin is good as being a bad slave trader. Jimmy Odukoya is the other major baddie, being the fellow who's stealing people to the other tribes people and selling them off for slaves.
And yeah, the rest of it is a bit of a hot mess.
There are some great action scenes, and it is great to see women going at it as hard as the men. Some scenes are pretty full on.
And of course, there's the laboured forbidden love element between Nawi and Malik (Jordan Bolger) who's mother was a slave from Dahomey, his father Portugeuse slave trader.
And the thing that got up my nose the most, was that of Nansica possibly being Nawi's mother - as if she didn't have enough agency being a kick arse general, but no, she had to be somebody's mother instead. And this plot point was as plain as the nose on my face from early in the film.
To be honest, I'd love to see a documentary about this group of warrior women, instead of this mish-mash of a film. Sure, the battle scenes are great of you like that sort of thing, but this film tries to do far too much. And the script is meh. And Gina Prince-Bythewood's direction is nothing to write home about. Sure, the costumes and sets are fine, but yeah... nah. This was watchable, but not overly enjoyable.
Maybe it would have been better if it didn't tried so hard.
It's a fascinating and miraculous bit of history, but I don't think this film has done it any favours. It mainly gets points for being a film full of kickass women of colour.
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